Disk storage medium processing apparatus

ABSTRACT

A disk storage medium processing apparatus includes an apparatus body having a disk loading/unloading slot, a traverse unit which is disposed in the apparatus body to conduct at least one of recording, deletion, and reproduction of information onto or from a disk, and a clamper supporting device for supporting a clamper which clamps the disk to the traverse unit. A disk conveying device conveys the disk into the apparatus body when a part of the disk is inserted through the disk loading/unloading slot and which ejects a part of the disk through the disk loading/unloading slot from a state that the disk is housed in the apparatus body. The disk conveying device includes a pair of first and second disk conveying arms which are pivotably attached to the apparatus body and holding a periphery of the disk to convey the disk.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This is a continuation application of Ser. No. 11/347,386 filed on Feb.6, 2006.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a technical field of a disk storagemedium processing apparatus which can be used for audio instruments,image instruments, information instruments, communication instruments,measuring instruments, and the like to record information onto andreproduce information from disks such as CDs or DVDs and, moreparticularly, to a technical field of a disk storage medium processingapparatus which can hold a disk at the periphery thereof to convey thedisk and can be formed compactly.

For example, for audio instruments, many disk recording/reproductionapparatuses of a type using a CD storing a plurality of songs have beenconventionally developed. As one of such conventional diskrecording/reproduction apparatuses, a disk storage medium processingapparatus has been proposed in Japanese Patent Unexamined PublicationNo. 2002-334507, which comprises an apparatus body having a diskloading/unloading slot, a traverse unit which is disposed in theapparatus body to conduct at least one of recording, deletion, andreproduction of information onto or from a disk, and a disk conveyingmeans which conveys the disk into the apparatus body when a part of thedisk is inserted through the disk loading/unloading slot and whichejects a part of the disk through the disk loading/unloading slot. Inthe disk storage medium processing apparatus, the disk conveying meanscomprises at least a first disk conveying arm which is pivotallyattached to the apparatus body and which has at its end a driving rollercapable of holding the periphery of the disk and a second disk conveyingarm which is pivotally attached to the apparatus body and which has atits end a driven roller capable of holding the periphery of the disk,wherein the driving roller is driven to rotate by a motor. The first andsecond disk conveying arms pivot while the periphery of the disk is heldby the driving roller and the driven roller, thereby conveying the disk.

Since only the periphery of the disk is touched by a pair of the drivingroller and the driven roller, the conventional disk storage mediumprocessing apparatus can convey the disk without scratching a recordingsurface of the disk.

In the disk storage medium processing apparatus disclosed in theaforementioned Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 2002-334507,the disk conveying means holds the disk of which a portion is insertedthrough the disk loading/unloading slot to convey the disk to a storeposition in the apparatus body and holds the disk at the store positionto eject a portion of the disk, not for conveying the disk between thestore position and the traverse unit. Therefore, another conveying meansis required to convey the disk between the store position and thetraverse unit and, in addition, another means for centering the diskrelative to the traverse unit is required. Accordingly, the disk storagemedium processing apparatus must have complex structure and theincreased number of parts. This makes the reduction in size of theapparatus difficult.

Further, since control is required for the conveyance of the diskbetween the disk loading/unloading slot and the store position, theconveyance of the disk between the store position and the traverse unit,and the centering of the disk relative to the traverse unit, the controlfor disk conveyance must be complex.

Since the periphery of the disk is held by the driving roller and thedriven roller, the disk can be held somehow. Since the disk is held bythe two rollers which both rotate, however, it is desired to hold thedisk in a more stable state.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide a disk storagemedium processing apparatus which achieves easy and flexible control forconveyance of a disk, whether the disk has a large diameter or a smalldiameter, with keeping protection of a recording surface of the disk andcan be formed more compactly.

To achieve the aforementioned object, the present invention provides adisk storage medium processing apparatus comprising: at least anapparatus body having a disk loading/unloading slot; a traverse unitwhich is disposed in said apparatus body to conduct at least one ofrecording, deletion, and reproduction of information onto or from adisk; and a disk conveying means which conveys said disk into saidapparatus body when a part of said disk is inserted through said diskloading/unloading slot and which ejects a part of said disk through saiddisk loading/unloading slot from the state that said disk is housed insaid apparatus body, wherein said disk conveying means comprises atleast a pair of first and second disk conveying arms which are pivotablyattached to the apparatus body and which can hold the periphery of saiddisk to convey said disk, and said first and second disk conveying armsare adapted to hold the periphery of said disk to convey said disk tosaid traverse unit when a part of said disk is inserted through saiddisk loading/unloading slot and are adapted to hold the periphery ofsaid disk to convey said disk from said traverse unit to eject a part ofsaid disk through said disk loading/unloading slot.

In the present invention, said first disk conveying arm is provided witha disk driving roller which can hold the periphery of said disk androtate in directions of withdrawing said disk and of ejecting said disk,and said second disk conveying arm is provided with a disk guide portionwhich is made of friction material and which can hold the periphery ofsaid disk.

In the present invention, said first disk conveying arm is always biasedin such a direction that said disk driving roller comes closer to saiddisk guide portion of said second disk conveying arm and said seconddisk conveying arm is always biased in such a direction that said diskguide portion comes closer to said disk driving roller, wherein thebiasing force biasing said first disk conveying arm is set to be morethan the biasing force biasing said second disk conveying arm.

In the present invention, a clamping portion capable of clamping theperiphery of said disk is formed in said disk loading/unloading slot onsaid second disk conveying arm side.

In the present invention, a gear train for transmitting rotational forceto said disk driving roller is arranged on said first disk conveyingarm.

The present invention further comprises an arm synchronous means forsynchronizing the pivotal movement of said first disk conveying arm andthe pivotal movement of said second disk conveying arm with each other.

In the present invention, said disk loading/unloading slot has a diskholding portion for holding said disk.

The present invention further provides a disk storage medium processingapparatus comprising: at least an apparatus body having a diskloading/unloading slot; a traverse unit which is disposed in saidapparatus body to conduct at least one of recording, deletion, andreproduction of information onto or from a disk; a disk conveying meanswhich conveys said disk into said apparatus body when a part of saiddisk is inserted through said disk loading/unloading slot and whichejects a part of said disk through said disk loading/unloading slot fromthe state that said disk is housed in said apparatus body; and a controlmeans for controlling said disk conveying means, wherein said diskconveying means comprises at least three disk conveying arms, i.e.,first through third disk conveying arms which are pivotably attached tothe apparatus body and which can hold the periphery of said disk toconvey said disk, and said control means comprises a trigger settingmeans for setting trigger for starting the control of said diskconveying means according to the diameter of said disk.

In the present invention, said trigger setting means sets said triggeraccording to the amount of pivotal movement of at least one of saidfirst through third disk conveying arms.

In the present invention, a disk diameter discrimination means fordiscriminating the diameter of said disk is disposed on at least one ofsaid first through third disk conveying arms and said trigger settingmeans sets the trigger according to the diameter of said diskdiscriminated by said disk discrimination means.

The present invention also provides a disk storage medium processingapparatus comprising: at least an apparatus body having a diskloading/unloading slot; a traverse unit which is disposed in saidapparatus body to conduct at least one of recording, deletion, andreproduction of information onto or from a disk; a clamper supportingmeans for supporting a clamper which clamps said disk to said traverseunit; a disk conveying means which conveys said disk into said apparatusbody when a part of said disk is inserted through said diskloading/unloading slot and which ejects a part of said disk through saiddisk loading/unloading slot from the state that said disk is housed insaid apparatus body; and a control means for controlling said diskconveying means, wherein said disk conveying means comprises at leastthree disk conveying arms, i.e., first through third disk conveying armswhich are pivotably attached to the apparatus body and which can holdthe periphery of said disk to convey said disk, at least one of saidfirst through third disk conveying arms has two arm members, i.e., firstand second arm members which are connected to each other such that saidfirst and second arm members can move relative to each other to have anangle therebetween, and one of said first and second arm members firstholds the periphery of said disk inserted through said diskloading/unloading slot at one location and, according to the movement ofsaid disk in the inserting direction, pivots relative to the other armmember so as to hold the periphery of said disk at two locations.

In the present invention, the locations where the periphery of said diskis held and which are determined according to the diameter of said diskare determined according to the amount of pivotal movement of the otherone of said first and second arm members.

In the present invention, when the other one of said first and secondarm members pivots so that the one of said first and second arm membersis spaced apart from the periphery of said disk after said disk isclamped by said clamper, the one of said first and second arm memberspivots relative to the other one in the reverse direction.

The present invention also provides a disk storage medium processingapparatus comprising: at least an apparatus body having a diskloading/unloading slot; a traverse unit which is disposed in saidapparatus body to conduct at least one of recording, deletion, andreproduction of information onto or from a disk; a disk conveying meanswhich conveys said disk into said apparatus body when a part of saiddisk is inserted through said disk loading/unloading slot and whichejects a part of said disk through said disk loading/unloading slot fromthe state that said disk is housed in said apparatus body; and a controlmeans for controlling said disk conveying means, wherein said controlmeans comprises a single control member which can conduct a plurality ofcontrols such as the control for conveyance of said disk by said diskconveying means, the control for centering of said disk relative to saidtraverse unit, and the control for clamping or unclamping said diskrelative to a turn table of said traverse unit.

In the present invention, said apparatus body is provided with a shutterfor covering said disk loading/unloading slot and said control memberalso conducts the control of opening or closing said shutter.

In the present invention, said control means comprises a trigger settingmeans for setting trigger for starting the control of said controlmember according to the diameter of said disk.

The present invention also provides disk storage medium processingapparatus comprising: at least an apparatus body having a diskloading/unloading slot; a traverse unit which is disposed in saidapparatus body to conduct at least one of recording, deletion, andreproduction of information onto or from a disk; a disk conveying meanswhich conveys said disk into said apparatus body when a part of saiddisk is inserted through said disk loading/unloading slot and whichejects a part of said disk through said disk loading/unloading slot fromthe state that said disk is housed in said apparatus body; and a controlmeans for controlling said disk conveying means, wherein said diskconveying means comprises at least three disk conveying arms, i.e.,first through third disk conveying arm members which are pivotablymounted on said apparatus body and which can hold the periphery of saiddisk to convey said disk, and at least one of said first through thirddisk conveying arms is an arm for centering said disk relative to saidtraverse unit.

In the present invention, the arm for centering said disk relative tosaid traverse unit has two arm members, i.e., first and second armswhich are connected to each other such that said first and second armmembers can move relative to each other to have an angle therebetween,and the locations where the periphery of said disk is held by one ofsaid first and second arm members are determined according to thediameter of said disk.

In the present invention, the locations where the periphery of said diskis held and which are determined according to the diameter of said diskare determined according to the amount of pivotal movement of the diskconveying arm composed of said first and second arm members.

The present invention also provides a disk storage medium processingapparatus comprising: at least an apparatus body having a diskloading/unloading slot; a traverse unit which is disposed in saidapparatus body to conduct at least one of recording, deletion, andreproduction of information onto or from a disk; a clamper supportingmeans for supporting a clamper which clamps said disk to said traverseunit; and a disk conveying means which conveys said disk into saidapparatus body when a part of said disk is inserted through said diskloading/unloading slot and which ejects a part of said disk through saiddisk loading/unloading slot from the state that said disk is housed insaid apparatus body, wherein said disk conveying means comprises a pairof first and second disk conveying arms which are pivotably attached tothe apparatus body and which can hold the periphery of said disk toconvey said disk, and further comprises a driving means for generatingrotational force, wherein said first disk conveying arm has a diskdriving roller which can be rotated by the rotational force of saiddriving means and said second disk conveying arm has a disk drivenroller which is rotatably disposed, and wherein said disk driving rollerand said disk driven roller hold the periphery of said disk of which aportion is inserted through said disk loading/unloading slot to conveysaid disk to the clamper supporting means, and hold the periphery ofsaid disk and rotate to convey said disk said clamper supporting meansto eject at least a portion of said disk through said diskloading/unloading slot.

In the present invention, said first disk conveying arm is always biasedin such a direction that said disk driving roller comes closer to saiddisk driven roller of said second disk conveying arm, said second diskconveying aim is always biased in such a direction that said disk drivenroller comes closer to said disk driving roller, and the biasing forcebiasing said first disk conveying arm is set to be more than the biasingforce biasing said second disk conveying arm.

In the present invention, at least pinching surfaces of a disk pinchingportion of said disk driving roller hold the periphery of said diskintermittently.

In the present invention, the disk pinching portion of said disk drivingroller is an elastic member and comprises a pair of pinching surfacescomposing said pinching surfaces and a bottom surface between the pairof said pinching surfaces, each of said pinching surfaces is composed ofconvexities and concavities which are alternately arranged in thecircumferential direction to form an uneven curved conical surface, andsaid bottom surface is composed of convexities and concavities which arealternately arranged in the circumferential direction to form an unevensurface parallel to the rotary shaft of said disk driving roller, andeach pair of corresponding convexities of said pinching surfaces areconnected via a convexity of said bottom surface and each pair ofcorresponding concavities of said pinching surfaces are connected via aconcavity of said bottom surface.

In the present invention, pairs of corresponding convexities of saidpinching surfaces have phase difference in the circumferential directionof the pinching surfaces, and the convexities of said bottom surfaceconnecting the corresponding convexities are formed to extend diagonallyrelative to the rotary shaft of said disk driving roller.

The present invention further comprises a power transmission means fortransmitting rotational force of said driving means to said disk drivingroller, wherein at least one of the rotary shaft of said driving meansand the rotary shaft of said power driving transmission means isprovided with a manual rotation means which allows the rotary shaft, onwhich the manual rotation means is provided, to be manually operated.

In the present invention, a gear train for transmitting the rotationalforce of said driving means to said disk driving roller is disposed onsaid first disk conveying arm.

The present invention further comprises an arm synchronous means forsynchronizing the pivotal movement of said first disk conveying arm andthe pivotal movement of said second disk conveying arm with each other.

In the present invention, said disk loading/unloading slot is providedwith a disk holding portion for holding said disk.

In the disk storage medium processing apparatus of the present inventionhaving the aforementioned structure, a pair of first and second diskconveying arms are adapted to hold the periphery of the disk to conveythe disk to the traverse unit when a part of the disk is insertedthrough the disk loading/unloading slot and are adapted to hold theperiphery of the disk to eject a part of the disk out of the apparatusbody through the disk loading/unloading slot from the state that thedisk is set to the traverse unit. Therefore, the disk storage mediumprocessing apparatus can convey the disk by the arms to the centeringposition where the disk is clamped to the traverse unit while protectingthe recording surface of the disk from damage or foreign matters such asdust. In addition, the conveyance of the disk to the traverse unit isconducted directly by the arms which can hold the disk of which a partis inserted through the disk loading/unloading slot and the conveyanceof the disk from the traverse unit to eject a part of the disk throughthe disk loading/unloading slot is conducted directly by the arms,thereby eliminating the need for another conveying means for conveyingthe disk, which is inserted into the apparatus body, to the traverseunit. This simplifies the structure for conveying the disk, thus allowsreduction in size of the apparatus, and allows easy and flexible settingof the control for conveyance of the disk.

The first disk conveying arm is provided with the disk driving rollercapable of holding the periphery of the disk and the second diskconveying arm is provided with the disk guide portion, made of frictionmaterial and which can hold the periphery of said disk, therebyeliminating the need for a roller on the second disk conveying arm. Thissimplifies the structure for holding the disk of the second diskconveying arm. In addition, the disk is conveyed while being rotatedabout a point which is a contact portion with the disk guide portion,made of friction material, of the second disk conveying arm, therebyenabling the stable conveyance of the disk.

Since the biasing force biasing the first disk conveying arm is set tobe more than the biasing force biasing the second disk conveying arm,the disk is pressed against the disk guide portion of the second diskconveying arm while being conveyed by holding its periphery with thefirst and second disk conveying arms. Therefore, the disk can beconveyed with keeping the stable attitude.

The clamping portion capable of clamping the periphery of the disk isformed in the disk loading/unloading slot on the second disk conveyingarm side, whereby the periphery of the disk is clamped by the clampingportion of the disk loading/unloading slot with the biasing force of thefirst disk conveying arm when the disk is inserted through the diskloading/unloading slot and when the disk is ejected through the diskloading/unloading slot. Therefore, the stable attitude of the disk canbe kept when a part of the disk is inserted through theloading/unloading slot and when a part of the disk is ejected throughthe loading/unloading slot. Accordingly, the user can easily insert thedisk into the loading/unloading slot and easily take out the disk fromthe loading/unloading slot.

The disk driving roller for conveying the disk is disposed on the firstdisk conveying arm and the gear train for transmitting rotational forceto the disk driving roller is arranged on the first disk conveying arm,whereby the rotational force of the driving motor can be reliablytransmitted to the disk driving roller even though the first diskconveying arm pivots. In addition, the efficient use of the first diskconveying arm eliminates the need for a space for mounting the geartrain onto the apparatus body. This also allows reduction in size of theapparatus.

The pivotal movement of the first disk conveying arm and the pivotalmovement of the second disk conveying arm are synchronized with eachother by the arm synchronous means, whereby the conveying control of thedisk can be securely and easily conducted such that the disk can beconveyed from the disk loading/unloading slot to the centering positionof the traverse unit and can be conveyed from the centering position ofthe traverse unit to the disk loading/unloading slot without leaning thedisk within the apparatus body.

The disk loading/unloading slot is provided with a disk holding portionfor holding the disk, whereby the disk can be held stably in the statethat a part of the disk is ejected from the apparatus body so as toallow the user to easily take out the disk from the apparatus body.

Trigger for starting the conveyance of the disk is set according to thediameter of the disk by the trigger setting means, thereby easily andflexibly responding the disk whether the disk has the small diameter orthe large diameter and thus constantly and easily conducting the controlfor conveyance of the disk of either diameter.

The disk diameter discrimination means for discriminating the diameterof the disk is disposed on at least one of the first through third diskconveying arms, thereby eliminating the need for another diskdiscrimination means for conducting the control for conveyance accordingto the diameter of the disk. This can reduce the number of parts andeliminate the need for a space of mounting the another discriminationmeans on the apparatus body, thereby allowing reduction in size of theapparatus.

The disk conveying arm has a bendable structure composed of the firstand second arm members and either one of the first and second armmembers is adapted to hold the periphery of the disk at one location andthen hold the periphery of the disk at two locations, thereby holdingthe disk stably and reliably conducting the centering of the disk.Therefore, the centering of the disk by the disk conveying arms can befurther reliably conducted whether the diameter of the disk is small orlarge.

When one of the first and second arm members of the disk conveying armis spaced apart from the periphery of the disk, the one of the first andsecond arm members pivots relative to the other one in the reversedirection so as to bend the conveying arm, thereby reducing its radiusof gyration and thus further allowing reduction in size of theapparatus.

A plurality of controls such as the control for conveyance of the disk,the control for centering of the disk, control for clamping orunclamping the disk relative to the turn table, and the control foropening or closing the shutter are conducted by only one control memberwhether the diameter of the disk is small or large, thereby eliminatingthe need for respective control members for conducting these controlsand thus reducing the number of parts. In addition, it facilitates thesecontrols and thus improves the controllability. Moreover, it caneliminate the need for spaces for mounting the respective controlmembers on the apparatus body, thereby allowing further reduction insize of the apparatus.

The centering of the disk is conducted by the disk conveying arms,thereby further reliably and easily conducting the centering of the diskwhether the diameter of the disk is small or large. Since the diskconveying arm has a bendable structure composed of the first and secondarm members, the disk can be reliably held by the single disk conveyingarm whether the disk has the small diameter or the large diameter and,in addition, the radius of gyration of the disk conveying arm isreduced, thereby allowing further reduction in size of the apparatus.Moreover, the locations where the periphery of the disk is held aredetermined according to the diameter of the disk, whereby even thesmall-diameter disk can be securely held.

The disk driving roller of the first disk conveying arm and the diskdriven roller of the second disk conveying arm both rotate, whereby thedisk of which a part is inserted through the disk loading/unloading slotcan be drawn into the apparatus body with little rotation of the diskand without significantly deflecting the center of the disk to one ofthe disk driving roller and the disk driven roller, thereby preventingthe user from feeling uncomfortable.

The disk is conveyed to the clamper supporting means by holding theperiphery of the disk with the disk driving roller and the disk drivenroller and the disk is conveyed from the clamper supporting means byholding the periphery of the disk with the disk driving roller and thedisk driven roller and rotating the disk driving roller and the diskdriven roller to eject a part of the disk through the diskloading/unloading slot, whereby the disk can be conveyed by the arms tothe centering position where the disk is clamped by the clampersupported by the clamper supporting means while protecting the recordingsurface of the disk from damage or foreign matters such as dust. Thisalso enables smooth and stable insertion and ejection of the disk. Inaddition, the conveyance of the disk to the clamper supporting means isconducted directly by the arms which can hold the disk of which a partis inserted through the disk loading/unloading slot and the conveyanceof the disk from the clamper supporting means to eject a part of thedisk through the disk loading/unloading slot is conducted directly bythe arms, thereby eliminating the need for another conveying means forconveying the disk, which is inserted into the apparatus body, to theclamper supporting means. This simplifies the structure for conveyingthe disk, thus allows reduction in size of the apparatus, and allowseasy and flexible setting of the control for conveyance of the disk.

Since the biasing force biasing the first disk conveying arm is set tobe more than the biasing force biasing the second disk conveying arm,the disk is pressed against the disk driven roller of the second diskconveying arm while being conveyed by holding its periphery with thefirst and second disk conveying arms. Therefore, the disk can beconveyed with keeping the stable attitude.

When the user inserts the disk through the disk loading/unloading slotso that the upper and lower edges of the periphery of the disk come incontact with the disk driving roller, the pinching surfaces of the diskdriving roller sandwich the disk intermittently, thereby generatinglarger driving force between the disk driving roller and the disk. Thelarge driving force ensures the pivotal movement of the first and seconddisk guide arms in the opening directions.

Since the disk pinching portion is composed of an elastic member such asa rubber member and the convexities of the bottom surface are formed toextend diagonally relative to the rotary shaft of said disk drivingroller, the convexities on the both pinching surfaces of the diskpinching portion are elastically deformed when the periphery of the diskis sandwiched from above and below between the convexities on the bothpinching surfaces so that the periphery of the disk can come in contactwith the convexities on the bottom surface. Therefore, when the diskdriving roller is rotated, the disk is pressed toward either one of thepinching surfaces by boundary edges between the convexities of thebottom surface and the concavities of the bottom surface according tothe rotational direction of the disk driving roller, thereby increasingthe driving force to be transmitted from the disk driving roller to thedisk and thus further ensuring the conveyance of the disk.

By the manual rotation means provided on at least one of the rotaryshaft of said driving means and the rotary shaft of said power drivingtransmission means, the rotary shaft, on which the manual rotation meansis provided, is allowed to be manually operated. Therefore, in anemergency when the disk can not be ejected from the disk storageprocessing apparatus by the rotational force of the driving means fromthe state that the disk is housed in the disk storage medium processingapparatus because the driving means does not work from any cause orbecause the power transmission means does not transmit the rotationalforce of the driving means to the disk driving roller from any cause atthe input side of the rotary shaft of the power transmission means onwhich the manual rotation means is provided, the disk can be ejectedfrom the disk storage medium processing apparatus easily by manuallyrotating the rotary shaft on which the manual rotation means isprovided.

When the user inserts the disk through the disk loading/unloading slotand the upper and lower edges of the periphery of the disk come incontact with the disk driving roller, the pinching surfaces of the diskdriving roller hold the disk intermittently, thereby generating largerdriving force between the disk driving roller and the disk. The largedriving force ensures the pivotal movement of the first and second diskguide arms in the opening directions.

The disk driving roller for conveying the disk is disposed on the firstdisk conveying arm and the gear train for transmitting power forrotating the disk driving roller is also disposed on the first diskconveying arm, whereby the rotational force of the driving motor can bereliably transmitted to the disk driving roller even though the firstdisk conveying arm pivots. In addition, the efficient use of the firstdisk conveying arm eliminates the need for a space for mounting the geartrain onto the apparatus body. This also allows reduction in size of theapparatus.

The pivotal movement of the first disk conveying arm and the pivotalmovement of the second disk conveying arm are synchronized with eachother by the arm synchronous means, whereby the conveying control of thedisk can be securely and easily conducted such that the disk can beconveyed from the disk loading/unloading slot to the centering positionof the traverse unit and can be conveyed from the centering position ofthe traverse unit to the disk loading/unloading slot without leaning thedisk within the apparatus body.

The clamping portion capable of clamping the periphery of the disk isformed in the disk loading/unloading slot on the second disk conveyingarm side, whereby the periphery of the disk can be clamped by the diskclamping portion of the disk loading/unloading slot with the biasingforce of the first disk conveying arm when the disk is inserted into thedisk loading/unloading slot or when the disk is ejected from the diskloading/unloading slot. Therefore, the attitude of the disk can be keptin the stable state when a part of the disk is inserted into the diskloading/unloading slot or when a part of the disk is ejected from thedisk loading/unloading slot. Accordingly, the user is allowed to easilyinsert the disk into the disk loading/unloading slot and easily take outthe disk from the loading/unloading slot.

Still other objects and advantages of the invention will in part beobvious and will in part be apparent from the specification.

The invention accordingly comprises the features of construction,combinations of elements, and arrangement of parts which will beexemplified in the construction hereinafter set forth, and the scope ofthe invention will be indicated in the claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

FIGS. 1( a)-1(c) schematically show an embodiment of a disk storagemedium processing (recording/reproduction) apparatus according to thepresent invention, wherein FIG. 1( a) is a perspective view thereof,FIG. 1( b) is an illustration of a disk loading/unloading slot thereof,and FIG. 1( c) is an illustration of a variation of the diskloading/unloading slot;

FIGS. 2( a) and 2(b) show a portion about the disk loading/unloadingslot of the disk storage medium processing apparatus of this embodiment,wherein FIG. 2( a) is a perspective view showing a state where the diskloading/unloading slot is opened and FIG. 2( b) is a perspective viewshowing a state where the disk loading/unloading is closed,

FIG. 3 is a plan view (top view) partially showing the disk storagemedium processing apparatus in the non-operational state without anupper cover of an apparatus body;

FIGS. 4( a)-4(c) show a first disk guide arm, wherein FIG. 4( a) is aperspective view thereof taken obliquely from above, FIG. 4( b) is aperspective view thereof taken from the direction IVB in FIG. 4( a), andFIG. 4( c) is a perspective view thereof taken from the direction IVC inFIG. 4( a);

FIGS. 5( a) and 5(b) show a second disk guide arm, wherein FIG. 5( a) isa perspective view thereof taken obliquely from above and FIG. 5( b) isa perspective view thereof taken from the direction VB in FIG. 5( a);

FIG. 6 is a plan view (top view) showing a driving part such as adriving motor of the disk storage medium processing apparatus of thisembodiment;

FIGS. 7( a) and 7(b) show a disk holding arm, wherein FIG. 7( a) is aperspective view thereof and FIG. 7( b) is an illustration forexplaining the action thereof;

FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing a trigger lever;

FIG. 9 is a perspective view partially showing a portion where thetrigger lever is placed;

FIG. 10 is a perspective view showing a resetting slider;

FIG. 11 is a bottom view partially showing a portion where the resettingslider is placed;

FIGS. 12( a)-12(c) show a slide cam member, wherein FIG. 12( a) is aperspective view thereof taken from a disk loading/unloading slot side,FIG. 12( b) is a perspective view thereof taken from the direction XIIBin FIG. 12( a), and FIG. 12( c) is a perspective view thereof taken fromthe direction XIIC in FIG. 12( b);

FIG. 13 is an illustration for explaining the relation between the slidecam member and a slide cam member driving gear;

FIG. 14 is a partial bottom view for explaining the synchronism betweenthe first disk guide arm and the second disk guide arm;

FIG. 15 is a partial plan view showing three switches;

FIG. 16 is a partial perspective view partially showing a closingmechanism of a shutter;

FIGS. 17( a) and 17(b) show a traverse unit, wherein FIG. 17( a) is anillustration showing a state where the traverse unit is at its lowerposition and FIG. 17( b) is an illustration showing a state where thetraverse unit is at its upper position;

FIG. 18 is a plan view showing a state where a small-diameter disk of 8cm in diameter is centered;

FIG. 19 is a plan view showing a state where a large-diameter disk of 12cm in diameter is centered;

FIG. 20 is a plan view showing a state where the holding of thelarge-diameter disk of 12 cm in diameter which is centered is released;

FIG. 21 is an illustration showing a disk driving roller in anotherembodiment of the disk storage medium processing apparatus according tothe present invention;

FIG. 22 is a perspective view showing a second disk guide arm of theembodiment shown in FIG. 21;

FIG. 23 is a plan view (top view) similar to FIG. 3, but partiallyshowing the disk storage medium processing apparatus in itsnon-operational state without an upper cover of an apparatus body of theembodiment shown in FIG. 21; and

FIG. 24 is an illustration similar to FIG. 21, but showing a diskdriving roller of further another embodiment of the disk storage mediumprocessing apparatus according to the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Hereinafter, best modes for carrying out the present invention will nowbe described with reference to the drawings.

FIGS. 1( a)-1(c) schematically show an embodiment of a disk storagemedium processing (recording/reproduction) apparatus according to thepresent invention, wherein

FIG. 1( a) is a perspective view thereof, FIG. 1( b) is an illustrationof a disk loading/unloading slot thereof, and FIG. 1( c) is anillustration of a variation of the disk loading/unloading slot. FIGS. 2(a) and 2(b) show a portion about the disk loading/unloading slot of thedisk storage medium processing apparatus of this embodiment, whereinFIG. 2( a) is a perspective view showing a state where the diskloading/unloading slot is opened and FIG. 2( b) is a perspective viewshowing a state where the disk loading/unloading is closed.

As shown in FIG. 1( a), the disk storage medium processing apparatus 1of this embodiment generally comprises a disk loading/unloading section3 which is formed at an end of a rectangular apparatus body 2 and aclamper supporting section 5 which is disposed adjacent to the diskloading/unloading section 3 within the apparatus body 2 to support aclamper which can clamp a disk relative to a traverse unit 4. Thetraverse unit 4 conducts at least one of recording, deletion, andreproduction of information onto or from the disk. As shown in FIG. 1(b) and an enlarged view of FIG. 2( a), a disk loading/unloading slot 6is formed in an end face of the apparatus body 2 at the diskloading/unloading section 3 of the disk storage medium processingapparatus 1. The disk 7 is inserted into the apparatus body 2 throughthe disk loading/unloading slot 6, while the disk 7 inside the apparatusbody 2 is unloaded from the apparatus body 2 through the diskloading/unloading slot 6.

As shown in FIG. 1( b), the disk loading/unloading slot 6 is formed insubstantially a rhombic shape, as seen along the disk insertingdirection, consisting of four slant faces 6 a, 6 b, 6 c, and 6 d whichare extremely gentle slopes. In this regard, there are vertical sides 6e, 6 f at the both lateral ends in the rhombic shape as shown in FIG. 1(b) so that the slant faces 6 a and 6 c; 6 b and 6 d do not directlyintersect with each other. Because of these slant faces 6 a, 6 b, 6 c,and 6 d, the recording surface of the disk 7 is prevented from coming incontact with the slant faces 6 a, 6 b, 6 c, and 6 d.

At the right end of the lower-side slant face 6 d of the diskloading/unloading slot 6, there is provided a disk holding member 6 i.The disk holding member 6 i comprises a slant face 6 g, of whichinclination angle is larger than that of the slant face 6 d, and ahorizontal face 6 h, as can be seen in FIG. 1( b), continued from theslant face 6 g. The disk holding member 6 i is made of an elasticmaterial. The upper-side slant face 6 b and the lower-side horizontalface 6 h compose together a disk holding portion 6 j because theupper-side slant face 6 b and the lower-side horizontal face 6 hcooperate to sandwich the periphery of the disk 7 therebetween. In thisregard, when the periphery of the disk 7 is held by the disk holdingportion 6 j, the disk holding member 6 i is slightly elasticallydeformed, thereby securely holding the disk 7 resiliently. In addition,the face along the periphery of the disk 7 is in contact with thehorizontal face 6 h, whereby the disk 7 is stably held by the diskholding portion 6 j. Since the face of the disk 7 where is in contactwith the horizontal face 6 h is in non-recordable portion 7 b (shown inFIG. 18), the recording of information to the disk 7 and thereproduction of information stored in the disk 7 are never affected eventhough the face of the disk 7 is in contact with the horizontal face 6h.

The disk holding member 6 i may be disposed on the right end of theupper-side slant face 6 b or may be disposed on each of the right endsof the upper- and lower-side slant faces 6 b and 6 d. In this case, thedisk holding member 6 i disposed on the upper-side slant face 6 b isvertically symmetrical to the disk holding member 6 i disposed on thelower-side slant face 6 d. As shown in FIG. 1( c), the disk holdingmember 6 i may not have the horizontal face 6 h so that the disk holdingmember 6 i has only the slant face 6 g. In this case, the periphery ofthe disk 7 is sandwiched between the two slant faces 6 b and 6 g.Moreover, the disk holding member 6 i may not have the slant face 6 g sothat the disk holding member 6 i has only the horizontal face 6 h. Inthis case, the inclination angle of the slant face is desired to besomewhat increased in order to securely introduce the periphery of thedisk 7 between the upper-side slant face 6 b and the horizontal face 6h. However, in order to securely introduce the periphery of the disk 7to be stably held between the upper-side slant face 6 b and thehorizontal face 6 h, the disk holding member 6 i is desired to have boththe slant face 6 b and the horizontal face 6 h.

The apparatus body 2 is provided with a shutter 8 for covering anduncovering the disk loading/unloading slot 6. The shutter 8 is pivotablyattached to both end faces of the apparatus body 2. The shutter 8 isalways biased by a gate control spring 9 (see FIG. 16) in a directionopening

the disk loading/unloading slot 6 (in the counter-clockwise direction inFIG. 2( a)). When the disk storage medium processing apparatus is notused (that is, when no disk is loaded), the shutter 8 is kept in a statewhere the disk loading/unloading slot 6 is uncovered as shown in FIG. 2(a). The control of closing of the shutter 8 to cover the diskloading/unloading slot 6 will be described later.

As shown in FIG. 2( a), a disk sensor 10 for detecting the disk 7inserted through the disk loading/unloading slot is disposed on an innerside of the apparatus body 2 relative to the disk loading/unloading slot6. As the disk sensor 10, for example, a known optical sensor may beused which comprises an emitter for emitting light and a receiver forreceiving the light from the emitter, wherein when the disk 7 isinserted, the receiver is covered by the disk 7 from the light of theemitter and thus can not detect the light, whereby the optical sensordetects the disk 7. As the disk sensor 10, however, any sensor notaffecting the operation of loading/unloading the disk 7 other than theoptical sensor may be used. This embodiment will be described in a caseusing an optical sensor as the disk sensor 10. Since the optical sensor10 may be a conventional one as mentioned above, the description of thespecific structure of the optical sensor 10 will be omitted.

FIG. 3 is a plan view (top view) partially showing the disk storagemedium processing apparatus in the non-operational state without anupper cover of the apparatus body.

As shown in FIG. 3, a pair of first and second disk guide arms 11, 12are pivotably attached to the apparatus body 2 at the diskloading/unloading section 3. The first and second disk guide arms 11, 12compose disk conveying arms as disk conveying means. As shown in FIG. 4(a), the first disk guide arm 11 is provided at one end thereof with asupporting hole 14 through which a rotary shaft 13 projecting from theapparatus body 2 is inserted. The rotary shaft 13 is fitted into thesupporting hole 14, wherein the first disk guide arm 11 is pivotablysupported on the apparatus body 2.

As shown in FIG. 4( b), a portion of the first disk guide arm 11 wherethe supporting hole 14 is formed is circular. In the outer periphery ofthe circular portion 15, a cam 16 is formed. The cam 16 has a camsurface 16 a raising in the counter-clockwise direction when seen inFIG. 4( b). As will be described later, the cam 16 composes a diskdiameter discrimination means.

On the circular portion 15 of the disk guide arm 11, there is formed acylindrical rotary shaft 17 coaxially with the supporting hole 14 asshown in FIG. 4( c). The rotary shaft 17 is provided at one end thereofwith a gear 18 formed integrally with and all around the rotary shaft17. As shown in FIG. 4( c), the first disk guide arm 11 has twoprojecting pins 19, 20 as shown in FIG. 4( c).

On one side of the first disk guide arm 11, there is mounted a diskdriving roller 21 as shown in FIG. 4( a). The disk driving roller 21 isdisposed at the other end side opposite from the supporting hole 14(that is, the tip end side of the first disk guide arm 11) and isrotatably supported. The disk driving roller 21 comprises a disk guideportion 21 a which is made of a resin to be formed in an invertedtruncated cone having a guide surface for guiding the upper peripheraledge, when seen in FIG. 4( a), of the disk 7 and a disk pinching portion21 b which is fixed to the disk guide portion 21 a to rotate togetherwith the disk guide portion 21 a and is an elastic member such as arubber member having pinching surfaces 21 c, 21 d composed of a pair ofcircular conical surfaces and a pinching groove for sandwiching theperiphery of the disk 7 from above and below. The pair of pinchingsurfaces 21 c, 21 d which cooperate together to form a pinching grooveare both curved surfaces continued circumferentially. The disk drivingroller 21 rotates while the periphery of the disk 7 is sandwiched fromabove and below by the pair of pinching surfaces 21 c, 21 d at thepinching groove of the disk pinching portion, thereby performing theloading and the unloading of the disk 7.

On the other side of the first disk guide arm 11 which is opposite tothe one side with the disk driving roller 21, there is mounted a geartrain 22 as shown in FIG. 4( c). The gear train 22 comprises a firstgear 23, a second gear 24, a third gear 25, a fourth gear 26, and afifth gear 27. The second gear 24 has a diameter smaller than that ofthe first gear 23 and is formed integrally with and coaxially with thefirst gear 23. The first and second gears 23, 24 are adapted to rotatetogether about the rotary shaft 17 of the first disk guide arm 11. Inthis regard, the supporting hole 14 and the cylindrical rotary shaft 17are rotatably fitted with the rotary shaft 13 of the apparatus body 2.

The third gear 25 is supported on the first disk guide arm 11 such thatthe third gear 25 meshes with the second gear 24 and thus rotates. Thefourth gear 26 is supported on the first disk guide arm 11 such that thefourth gear 26 meshes with the third gear 25 and thus rotates. The fifthgear 27 is supported on the first disk guide arm 11 such that the fifthgear 27 meshes with the fourth gear 26 and thus rotates. The fifth gear27 is coaxial with the disk driving roller 21 and can rotate togetherwith the disk driving roller 21. The first and second gears 23 and 24,the third gear 25, the fourth gear 26, and the fifth gear 27 are alignedin this order in a straight line or substantially a straight line alongthe longitudinal direction from the supporting hole 14 side to the diskdriving roller 21 side. The first disk guide arm 11 is always biased bya spring (not shown) in the counter-clockwise direction in FIG. 3, thatis, in a such a direction that the disk driving roller 21 comes closerto a disk guide portion 33 (as will be described later) of the seconddisk guide arm 12. The first through fifth gears 23, 24, 25, 26, and 27are not limited to be aligned in a straight line or substantially astraight line and may be shifted somewhat from the straight line. Thefirst through fifth gears 23, 24, 25, 26, and 27 only have to bearranged along the longitudinal direction within the range of the firstdisk guide arm 11.

As shown in FIG. 5( a), the second disk guide arm 12 is provided at oneend side thereof with a boss 29 having a supporting hole 29 a throughwhich a rotary shaft 28 (as shown in FIG. 3) projecting from theapparatus body 2 is inserted. The rotary shaft 28 is fitted into theboss 29, wherein the second disk guide aim 12 is pivotably supported onthe apparatus body 2. The boss 29 is also provided with a cylindricalgear 30 to be formed coaxially with and integrally with the boss 29.

On the bottom, when seen in FIG. 5( a), of the second disk guide arm 12,there is formed a switch actuator 31 as shown in FIG. 5( b). The switchactuator 31 is formed into a circular arc shape coaxial with thesupporting hole 29 a. On the bottom of the second disk guide arm 12,there is also formed a projecting pin 32.

As shown in FIG. 5( a), on the other end side of the second disk guidearm 12, there is provided a disk guide portion 33 which can not rotaterelative to the second disk guide arm 12. The disk guide portion 33comprises a first guide holding portion 34 which is formed in a circulararc shape, at the end side of the disk guide portion 33, and a linearsecond guide holding portion 35 which is formed to extend tangentiallyfrom the first guide holding portion 34 toward the boss 29 side inparallel with the disk loading direction or the disk unloadingdirection. The first guide holding portion 34 comprises a disk guideportion 34 a which is made of a resin to be formed in a partial invertedtruncated cone having a guide surface for guiding the upper peripheraledge, when seen in FIG. 5( a), of the disk 7 and a disk pinching portion34 b which is integrally fixed to the disk guide portion 34 a and is anelastic member such as a rubber member having a circular arc pinchinggroove for sandwiching the periphery of the disk 7 from above and belowand for guiding the disk 7. The linear guide holding portion 35comprises a disk guide portion 35 a which is made of a resin to beformed in a slant face having a guide surface for guiding the upperperipheral edge, when seen in FIG. 5( a), of the disk 7 and a disk

pinching portion 35 b which is integrally fixed to the disk guideportion 35 a and is an elastic member such as a rubber member having alinear pinching groove for sandwiching the periphery of the disk 7 fromabove and below and for guiding the disk 7. It should be noted that thefirst guide holding portion 34 is not limited to be formed in a circulararc shape and may be formed into a linear shape inclined relative to thesecond guide holding portion 35 in such a manner as to spread in thedisk unloading direction.

The upper and lower peripheral edges of the disk 7 are supported by thecircular pinching groove of the first guide holding portion 34 and thelinear pinching groove of the linear guide holding portion 35 so thatthe disk 7 is guided along these grooves.

Biasing force of a spring 36 (shown in FIG. 18 as will be describedlater) is applied to a spring supporting portion 12 a (as shown in FIG.5( b)) of the second disk guide arm 12, whereby the second disk guidearm 12 is always biased in the clockwise direction when seen in FIG. 3,i.e., in a such direction that the disk guide portion 33 comes closer tothe disk driving roller 21 of the first disk guide arm 11. In thisregard, the biasing force on the first disk guide arm 11 is set to bemore than the biasing force on the second disk guide arm 12 (it isdesired that the biasing force on the first disk guide arm 11 is aboutthree times as large as the biasing force on the second disk guide arm12).

FIG. 6 is a bottom view showing the disk storage medium processingapparatus without a lower cover of the apparatus body 2.

In the disk loading/unloading section 3 of the apparatus body 2, thereare mounted a driving motor 37 and a worm 38 as shown in FIG. 6. Theworm 38 is disposed parallel with a rotary shaft 37 a of the drivingmotor 37 at a predetermined distance from the rotary shaft 37 a. Adriving pulley 39 is attached to the rotary shaft 37 a of the drivingmotor 37, while a driven pulley 40 is attached to the worm 38. Anendless belt 41 is wound around the driving pulley 39 and the drivenpulley 40 so as to extend therebetween with some tension. By the endlessbelt 41, rotation is reduced and transmitted from the driving pulley 39to the driven pulley 40.

Meshed with the worm 38 is a worm wheel 42 which is rotatably supportedon the apparatus body 2 so that rotation of the worm 38 is reduced andconverted into rotation of the worm wheel 42 about a rotary axisperpendicular to the worm 38. The rotation of the worm wheel 42 istransmitted to the first gear 23 of the gear train 22 on the first diskguide arm 11 via an intermediate gear 43 rotatably supported on theapparatus body 2. Therefore, rotational force of the driving motor 37 isreduced and transmitted to the disk driving roller 21 via the endlessbelt 41, the worm 38, the worm wheel 42, the intermediate gear 43, thefirst gear 23, the second gear 24, the third gear 25, the fourth gear26, and the fifth gear 27.

As shown in FIG. 3, a disk holding arm 44 composing a disk conveying armas a disk conveying means is pivotably supported on the apparatus body2. As shown in FIG. 7( a), the disk holding arm 44 generally comprises aholding arm body 45 as an arm member and a holding assist arm 47 as anarm member which is connected to the holding arm body 45 by a pin 46 insuch a manner as to allow pivotal movement relative to each other. Inthis case, the relative pivotal movement between the holding arm body 45and the holding assist arm 47 is limited to a predetermined amount by apin 48 projecting from the holding arm body 45 and a restriction slot 49which is formed in the holding assist arm 47 to have a shape of an arcof a circle about the pin 46 and into which the pin 48 is fitted.

The holding arm body 45 is provided with a cylindrical column 50 havinga supporting hole 50 a integrally formed on an end thereof opposite tothe side connected to the holding assist arm 47. As shown in FIG. 3, asupporting shaft 51 (shown in FIG. 3) projecting from the apparatus body2 is fitted into a supporting hole 50 a of the cylindrical column 50,whereby the holding arm body 45 is pivotably supported on the apparatusbody 2. The column 50 is provided with a first pressing portion 52 and asecond pressing portion 53 such that the first pressing portion 52 andthe second pressing portion 53 can rotate together with the column 50.In this regard, the first pressing portion 52 is positioned lower thanthe second pressing portion 53 and precedes the second pressing portion53 when rotates on the column 50 in the counterclockwise direction. Thecolumn 50 is also provided with a control arm 54 with is formedintegrally with the column 50 to extend in a direction opposite to theholding arm body 45. The control arm 54 has two pins 55 a, 55 b at anend thereof.

On the both ends of the holding assist arm 47, there are mounted diskholding rollers 56 and 57, respectively. The disk holding rollers 56, 57are adapted to hold the periphery of the disk 7. The disk holdinghollers 56, 57 are rotatably supported by roller supporting members 58,59 which are integrally fixed to the both ends of the holding assist arm47, respectively. The disk holding rollers 56, 57 are arranged along acircular arc such that the disk holding rollers 56, 57 can hold theperiphery of the disk 7 which is a small-diameter disk of 8 cm indiameter (hereinafter, sometimes referred to simply as a 8 cm disk) whenthe center of the 8 cm disk 7 is set at a position shown in FIG. 3corresponding to the center of a turn table of a traverse unit 4(hereinafter, this position will be sometimes referred to a centeringposition).

Further, the roller supporting member 59 has a pin 60 projectingtherefrom. On the other hand, the holding arm body 45 is provided with arotary shaft 62 projecting therefrom, whereby a switching lever 61 issupported to the holding arm body 45 by the rotary shaft 62 such thatthe switching lever 61 is rotatable relative to the holding arm body 45.

The switching lever 61 is provided with a slot 63 which is formed at anend near the holding assist arm 47. The pin 60 of the roller supportingmember 59 is fitted into the slot 63. The other end, opposite to the endwhere the slot 63 is formed, of the switching lever 61 is formed into anL-like bent shape of which a tip portion functions as a pressed portion61 a.

Normally (that is, when no disk is inserted or the disk storage mediumprocessing apparatus 1 is not in operation), the switching lever 61 isbiased in the clockwise direction by a spring (not shown) as shown bysolid lines in FIG. 7( b). Therefore, the pin 48 of the holding arm body45 is in contact with an end of the restriction slot 49 so that theholding arm body 45 and the holding assist arm 47 are held in a statehaving a slant angle therebetween. When the holding assist arm 47 pivotsa predetermined amount from the normal state in the counterclockwisedirection relative to the holding arm body 45 against the biasing forceof the spring so that the pin 48 of the holding arm body 45 comes incontact with the other end of the restriction slot 49 of the holdingassist arm 47, the switching lever 61 is set such that the holding armbody 45 and the holding assist arm 47 are aligned substantially in asingle circular arc shape as shown by chain double-dashed lines in FIG.7( b).

The disk holding arm 44 is always biased in the clockwise direction whenseen in FIG. 3 by a spring (not shown). When disk storage mediumprocessing apparatus 1 is not in operation, the holding assist arm 47 isin contact with a stopper 81 f of a slide cam member 81 (as will bedescribed later) which is a control member and is located at itsnonoperational position as shown in FIG. 3, whereby the disk holding arm44 is held in its nonoperational position as shown in FIG. 3 such thatthe holding assist arm 47 is substantially located at a positioncorresponding to the center of the turn table of the traverse unit 4.When the disk holding arm 44 is in the nonoperational position, the diskholding roller 56 at the end of the holding assist arm 47 is locatednear the disk loading/unloading slot 6 (on the right hand side in FIG.3) relative to the disk holding roller 57 at the other end of theholding assist arm 47.

As shown in FIG. 3, the apparatus body 2 is provided with a triggerlever 64 as a trigger setting means which is rotatably disposed adjacentto the supporting shaft 51 for the disk holding arm 44. As shown in FIG.8, the trigger lever 64 comprises a plate-like rhomboidal body 65, arotary shaft 66 which is formed at one corner of the body 65 to projectdownwards, a pressed column 67 which is formed at another corner of thebody 65 to project downwards just like the rotary shaft 66 and which cancome in contact with the first and second pressing portions 52, 53 ofthe disk holding arm 44, a pressing column 68 which is formed at furtheranother corner of the body 65 to project downwards just like the rotaryshaft 66, a cam contact portion 69 which is formed on the body 65 andwhich can come in contact with the cam surface 16 a of the cam 16 of thefirst disk guide arm 11, and a spring supporting column 70 which isformed on the body 65 to project upwards.

The rotary shaft 66 of the trigger lever 64 is fitted into a cylindricalsupporting shaft (not shown) projecting from the apparatus body 2,whereby the trigger lever 64 is rotatably supported on the apparatusbody 2. As shown in FIG. 9, a coil spring 71 is supported on anddisposed around the spring supporting column 70 and is compressedbetween the body 65 and the upper cover of the apparatus body 2 so thatthe coil spring 71 always biases the trigger lever 64 downwards whenseen in FIG. 9.

As shown in FIG. 9, the apparatus body 2 is also provided with aresetting slider 72 disposed adjacent to the trigger lever 64. Theresetting slider 72 can be guided by a ridge-shaped guide rail (notshown) which is formed on a side plate of the apparatus body 2 so as tomove straight in the longitudinal direction of the apparatus body 2,i.e., the left-right direction when seen in FIG. 3.

As shown in FIG. 10, the resetting slider 72 is formed in an h-likeshape having two branches at its one end and comprises a pair of guideportions 73, 74 to be fitted on the ridge-shaped guide rail disposed onthe side plate of the apparatus body 2, a pressed portion 75 which isformed on the other end and with which the pressing column 68 of thetrigger lever 64 can come in contact, and a rack gear 76 which is formedon the end of one of the branches. In the lower surface, when seen inFIG. 10, of the resetting slider 72, a cam 77 having a cam groove 77 ais formed as shown in FIG. 11. The cam groove 77 a comprises a first camgroove portion 77 b which extends linearly upwards when seen in FIG. 11,a second cam groove portion 77 c which extends along a linearinclination from the upper end of the first cam groove portion 77 b toan upper left, and a third cam groove portion 77 d which extendslinearly leftward from the upper end of the second cam groove portion 77c.

On the other hand, a small-diameter intermediate gear 78 of whichdiameter is smaller than that of the intermediate gear 43 is disposedcoaxially with the intermediate gear 43 to rotate together with theintermediate gear 43. The small-diameter intermediate gear 78 alwaysmeshes with an intermediate gear 79 which is rotatably disposed on theapparatus body 2. Further, a slider driving gear 80 of which diameter issmaller than that of the intermediate gear 79 is disposed coaxially withand integrally with the intermediate gear 79 to rotate together with theintermediate gear 79. The rack gear 76 of the resetting slider 72 canmesh with the slider driving gear 80.

As shown in FIG. 3, the apparatus body 2 is provided with a slide cammember 81 such that the slide cam member 81 can move straight in adirection perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the apparatusbody 2, i.e., the vertical direction when seen in FIG. 3. As shown inFIG. 11 and FIGS. 12( a), 12(b), the slide cam member 81 has a pressingportion 82 at one end near the resetting slider 72. The slide cam member81 also has an arm 83 formed on the inner side of the pressing portion82 to extend in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal directionof the slide cam member 81 and toward the disk loading/unloading slot 6.On a side, opposite to the pressing portion 82, of the arm 83, there isformed a projecting pin 84.

Further, the slide cam member 81 is provided with a cam 85 having a camsurface 85 a. The pin 20 of the first disk guide arm 11 comes in contactwith the cam surface 85 a so as to control the first disk guide arm 11,thereby subsidiarily achieving the more secure positioning of alarge-diameter disk of 12 cm in diameter 7 (hereinafter, sometimesreferred to simply as a 12 cm disk) to the center without backlash.Furthermore, the slide cam member 81 is provided with a cam 86 having acam surface 86 a. The pin 20 of the first disk guide arm 11 comes incontact with the cam surface 86 a so as to control the first disk guidearm 11. On the inner side, relative to the cams 85 and 86, of the slidecam member 81, there is formed a rack gear 87 facing toward the diskloading/unloading slot 6.

On the other hand, on the other end, opposite to the resetting slider72, of the slide cam member 81, there is provided a cam 89 having a camsurface 88. The cam surface 88 comprises a first cam surface 88 a whichhas a gentle inclination and a second cam surface 88 b which iscontinued from the first cam surface 88 a and extends substantiallyhorizontally (in the longitudinal direction of the slide cam member 81).

When the second disk guide arm 12 holds the large-diameter 12 cm disk,the pin 32 of the second disk guide arm 12 first comes in contact withthe first cam surface 88 a so that the pivotal movement of the seconddisk guide arm 12 is controlled by the first cam surface 88 a. Then, thepin 32 comes in contact with the second cam surface 88 b so that thepivotal movement of the second disk guide arm 12 is controlled by thesecond cam surface 88 b.

The cam 89 has a cam surface 90 which comprises a first cam surface 90 awhich has a gentle inclination, a second cam surface 90 b which iscontinued from the first cam surface 90 a and of which inclination islarger than that of the first cam surface 90 a, and a third cam surface90 c which is continued from the second cam surface 90 b and is inclinedin a direction reversed from the direction of the inclination of thesecond cam surface 90 b with a similar angle.

The pin 32 of the second disk guide arm 12 first comes in contact withthe first cam surface 90 a so that the pivotal movement of the seconddisk guide arm 12 is controlled by the first cam surface 90 a. Then, thepin 32 comes in contact with the second cam surface 90 b so that thepivotal movement of the second disk guide arm 12 is controlled by thesecond cam surface 90 b. After the second disk guide arm 12 holds andsets the small-diameter 8 cm disk 7 to the centering position relativeto the traverse unit 4, the pin 32 comes in contact with the third camsurface 90 c so that the pivotal movement of the second disk guide arm12 is controlled by the third cam surface 90 c to move the second diskguide arm 12 to pivot in the counterclockwise direction so as toseparate the disk guide portion 33 of the second disk guide arm 12 fromthe periphery of the 8 cm disk 7.

At the end, opposite to the resetting slider 72 side, of the slide cammember 81, there is provided a cam 91 having a slant cam surface 91 afor controlling the closing motion of the shutter. The slant cam surface91 a slopes downwards inward from an end, opposite to the side near theresetting slider 72, of the slide cam member 81 when seen in FIG. 12(a), in other words, slops upwards when seen in

FIG. 12( b).

As shown in FIGS. 12( b) and 12(c), the slide cam member 81 has astanding wall 92 which is formed to extend perpendicular to the face onwhich the arm 83, the cams 85 and 86, the rack gear 87, and the cam 89are formed. In the standing wall 92, there are formed a pair of camslots 93 and 94. The both cam slots 93 and 94 are composed of lowerhorizontal slots 93 a and 94 a, inclined slots 93 b and 94 b continuedfrom the lower horizontal slots 93 a and 94 a, and upper horizontalslots 93 c and 94 c continued from the inclined slots 93 b and 94 b whenseen in FIGS. 12( b) and 12(c), respectively. In this case, the inclinedslots 93 b and 94 b are inclined leftwards from the left ends of theupper horizontal slots 93 c and 94 c to the right ends of the lowerhorizontal slots 93 a and 94 a when seen in FIG. 12( c), respectively.The width of the inclined slot 93 b is set to be slightly larger thanthat of the inclined slot 94 b, thereby preventing the movement of thetraverse unit from being locked when the traverse unit is movedvertically.

The slide cam member 81 is always biased by a spring (not shown) towardthe nonoperational position, i.e., onto the resetting slider 72 side(downwards when seen in FIG. 3). In addition, the resetting slider 72 isalways biased by a spring toward the nonoperational position, i.e.,leftwards when seen in FIG. 3 or upwards when seen in FIG. 11.Therefore, the resetting slider 72 presses the pressing column 68 of thetrigger lever 64 upwards when seen in FIG. 11 so that the trigger lever64 is biased in the counter-clockwise direction when seen in FIG. 3.Accordingly, the corner of the body 65 of the trigger lever 64 where thepressed column 67 is formed comes in contact with the side plate of theapparatus body 2 as shown in FIG. 3, thereby preventing the furtherrotation of the trigger lever 64 in the counter-clockwise direction.When the disk storage medium processing apparatus 1 is not in operation,the trigger lever 64, the resetting slider 72, and the slide cam member81 are held in their nonoperational positions as shown in FIG. 3 a andFIG. 11. A spring that biases the slide cam member 81 is not necessarilyprovided and can be omitted.

The trigger lever 64 is located at the nonoperational position, i.e. thelower position, in the vertical direction when seen in FIG. 9 when thefirst disk guide atm 11 is in the nonoperational position as shown inFIG. 3. As mentioned above, when the trigger lever 64 is in thenonoperational position in the vertical direction as well as therotational direction and the disk holding arm 44 is in thenonoperational position as shown in FIG. 3, there is a predeterminedspace α set in the rotational direction between the first pressingportion 52 of the disk holding arm 44 and the pressed column 67 of thetrigger lever 64. When the small-diameter 8 cm disk 7 is inserted andthe disk holding arm 44 pivots a predetermined amount, the space α iscancelled so that the first pressing portion 52 and the pressed column67 come in contact with each other. Further, when the trigger lever 64and the disk holding arm 44 are in the nonoperational positions asmentioned above, there is a predetermined space β set in the rotationaldirection between the second pressing portion 53 and the pressed column67. The space is larger than the space α. When the large-diameter 12 cmdisk is inserted and the disk holding arm 44 pivots a predeterminedamount which is larger than that in the case of the small-diameter 8 cmdisk 7, the space β is cancelled so that the second pressing portion 53and the pressed column 67 of the raised trigger lever 64 come in contactwith each other.

The different spaces α and β are set for the small-diameter 8 cm disk 7and the large-diameter 12 cm disk 7, respectively as mentioned above,whereby trigger (timing) for starting the movement of the slide cammember 81 is set for the small-diameter disk 7 and the large-diameterdisk 7, respectively so that the centering control of the disk 7 by theslide cam member 81 can be conducted in the same way even when the disk7 is a small-diameter disk or a large-diameter disk. Accordingly, themoving amount of the disk holding arm 44, the single trigger lever 64,and the single slide cam member 81 cooperate together to achieve thecentering of the disk whether the disk has the small diameter or thelarge diameter.

When the slide cam member 81 is in the nonoperational position as shownin FIG. 11, the pin 55 a of the disk holding arm 44 and the pressingportion 82 of the slide cam member 81 are spaced from each other. Inaddition, the pin 84 of the slide cam member 81 is in contact with thelower end of the first cam groove portion 77 b of the cam groove 77 a ofthe resetting slider 72.

As shown in FIG. 13, on the apparatus body 2, a gear 96 always meshingwith the intermediate gear 43 is rotatably disposed and a slide cammember driving gear 97 of which diameter is smaller than that of thegear 96 is disposed coaxially with the gear 96 such that the slide cammember driving gear 97 can rotate together with the gear 96. The rackgear 87 of the slide cam member 81 can mesh with the slide cam memberdriving gear 97. The rack gear 87 shown in FIG. 13 is in a state meshingwith the slide cam member driving gear 97. FIG. 13 shows the state wherethe slide cam member 81 is in operation. On the other hand, when theslide cam member 81 is in the nonoperational position, the rack gear 87does not mesh with the slide cam member driving gear 97 and ispositioned on the left of the slide cam member driving gear 97 when seenin FIG. 13.

As shown in FIG. 14, an arm synchronous member 98 as an arm synchronousmeans is disposed such that it can move in a direction perpendicular tothe longitudinal direction. On the both ends of the arm synchronousmember 98, there is provided rack gears 99 and 100, respectively. Therack gear 99 as one of the rack gears always meshes with the gear 18 ofthe first disk guide arm 11, while the other rack gear 100 always mesheswith a gear 101 which is rotatably supported on the apparatus body 2.The gear 101 always meshes with the gear 30 of the second disk guide arm12. Therefore, by the arm synchronous member 98, the first and seconddisk guide arms 11 and 12 are synchronized with each other so as topivot in opposite directions. In this regard, when the disk storagemedium processing apparatus 1 is not in operation, the pin 19 (FIG. 4(c)) projecting downwards from the first disk guide arm 11 is in contactwith a stopper 81 b (shown in FIG. 12( b)) of the slide cam member 81 sothat the first disk guide arm 11 is held in its nonoperational positionshown in FIG. 3. Because of the arm synchronous member 98, the seconddisk guide arm 12 is also held in its nonoperational position shown inFIG. 3. The arm synchronous member 98 is supported such that it canslide relative to a groove 104 which is formed adjacent to a bottom wall103, on which the arm 83 is formed, of the slide cam member 81 shown inFIG. 12( a). As shown in FIG. 3, an assist lever 105 for assisting thecentering of the small-diameter 8 cm disk 7 is pivotably supported bythe rotary shaft 28 of the apparatus body 2. The assist lever 105 isalways biased by a spring (not shown) in the counter-clockwise directionwhen seen in FIG. 3. The assist lever 105 has a pin 106 which is formedat a tip end of the assist lever 105. The pin 106 can come in contactwith the periphery of the small-diameter 8 cm disk 7. When the diskstorage medium processing apparatus 1 is not in operation, one side 105a of the assist lever 105 is in contact with a stopper 81 c of the slidecam member 81 so that the assist lever 105 is held in its nonoperationalposition. It should be noted that the assist lever 105 may have a guidepin on an end opposite to the pin 106 and the apparatus body 2 may beprovided with a guide groove for guiding the guide pin so that the guidepin and the guide groove cooperate together to hold the assist lever 105in its nonoperational position.

When the small-diameter 8 cm disk 7 is set in the centering position asshown in FIG. 18, another side 105 b, which extends in a directionsubstantially perpendicular to the side 105 a, of the assist lever 105is in contact with a stopper 81 d of the slide cam member 81, wherebythe assist lever 105 is stably held in its centering setting position.

On the other hand, the apparatus body 2 has a refuge portion 107 for theassist lever 105 as shown in FIG. 18 (as will be described later). Incase of the large-diameter 12 cm disk, the slide corn member 7 moveslargely the stopper 81 c presses an arm portion 105 c of the assistlever 105 so that the assist lever 105 moves into (is received in) therefuge portion 107. When the assist lever 105 is placed in the refugeportion 107, the pin 106 is spaced away from the periphery of thelarge-diameter 12 cm disk 7.

As shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 15, the apparatus body 2 has three switches,i.e., first through third switches 108, 109, and 110. The first switch108 is a switch for detecting the small-diameter 8 cm disk 7, the secondswitch 109 is a switch for detecting the large-diameter 12 cm disk 7,and the third switch 110 is a switch for detecting when thesmall-diameter or large-diameter disk 7 is clamped by the traverse unit.In this regard, the first and second switches 108 and 109 have actuators108 a and 109 a, respectively. Each of the first and second switches 108and 109 is turned on when the corresponding actuator 108 a, 109 a ispressed by the switch actuator 31 of the second disk guide arm 12 andthe third switch 110 is turned on when its actuator is pressed by theswitch actuator 81 e of the slide cam member 81.

As shown in FIG. 2, the shutter 8 has both side arms 8 a and 8 b whichare pivotably attached to the apparatus body 2. As shown in FIG. 16, thearm 8 a has a projecting pivot shaft 111. The apparatus body 2 has aclosing control member 112 which is rotatably attached to the apparatusbody 2. The

closing control member 112 is always biased by the gate control spring 9in the clockwise direction when seen in FIG. 16. The closing controlmember 112 has two arms 113 and 114. One of the arms 113 is engaged withthe pivot shaft 111 such that, when the closing control member 112rotates, the shutter 8 pivots in the opposite direction. The other arm114 can come in contact with the cam surface 91 a of the cam 91 of theslide cam member 81. FIG. 16 shows the state where the closing controlmember 112 rotates in the counter-clockwise direction by the cam 91 sothat the shutter 8 is closed to cover the disk loading/unloading slot 6.When the disk storage medium processing apparatus 1 is not in operation,the closing control member 112 is not in contact with the cam 91 and isset by the gate control spring 9 to be located at a position afterrotated by in the clockwise direction so that the shutter 8 is openednot to cover the disk loading/unloading slot as shown in FIG. 2( a).

As shown in FIGS. 17( a) and 17(b), the traverse unit 4 is supported bya traverse unit supporting member 115. The traverse unit supportingmember 115 is pivotably attached at its one end to the apparatus body 2by a pivot shaft 116. The traverse unit 4 is disposed on the other endof the traverse unit supporting member 115 and is provided with a turntable 117,

On the other end (the left end when seen in FIGS. 17( a) and 17(b)) ofthe traverse unit supporting member 115, there are formed a pair ofprojecting pins 118 and 119 (shown in FIG. 12( c), not shown in FIG. 17(a) nor FIG. 17( b)). As shown in FIG. 12( c), the projecting pins 118and 119 are fitted into the cam slots 93 and 94, respectively. In thisregard, when the disk storage medium processing apparatus 1 is not inoperation as shown in FIG. 17( a), the projecting pins 118 and 119 arelocated at the left ends of the lower horizontal slots 93 a and 94 a ofthe cam slots 93 and 94, respectively as shown in FIG. 12( c). In thisstate, the traverse unit 4 is moved to pivot in the counter-clockwisedirection so that the other end side of the traverse unit 4 is set atits lower position by a stopper (not shown) formed on the apparatus body2 as shown in FIG. 17( a)

Hereinafter, the action of the disk storage medium processing apparatus1 of this embodiment having the aforementioned structure will bedescribed. When the disk storage medium processing apparatus 1 is not inoperation, that is, when no disk 7 is loaded, all components of the diskstorage medium processing apparatus 1 such as the first and second diskguide arms 11 and 12, the disk holding arm 44, the trigger lever 64, theresetting slider 72, and the slide cam member 81 are in theirnonoperational positions as shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 9. At this point,the disk holding arm 44 is in the bent state where the holding arm body45 and the holding assist arm 47 form a slight angle therebetween asshown by solid lines in FIG. 7( b). The shutter 8 is set in the openedstate where the disk loading/unloading slot 6 is not covered as shown inFIG. 2( a). The traverse unit 4 is set in the lowered position as shownin FIG. 17( a). In addition, the main power of the disk storage mediumprocessing apparatus 1 is turned on.

When the disk storage medium processing apparatus 1 is in theaforementioned nonoperational state, a user inserts a portion of thesmall-diameter 8 cm disk 7 into the apparatus body 2 through the diskloading/unloading slot 6 from the right hand side when seen in FIG. 3.Then, the disk sensor 10 detects the disk 7, whereby the driving motor37 is driven to rotate by a controller (not shown) of the disk storagemedium processing apparatus 1. By the rotation of the driving motor 37,the disk driving roller 21 of the first disk guide arm 11 is rotated inthe counter-clockwise direction when seen in FIG. 3, i.e., in such adirection as to draw the disk 7 to the centering position, through theendless belt 41, the worm 38, the worm wheel 42, the intermediate gear43, the first through fourth gears 23, 24, 25, 26, and 27.

The periphery of the disk 7 of which portion is inserted through thedisk loading/unloading slot 6 comes in contact with the disk drivingroller 21 and the disk guide portion 33, and the disk 7 is thereforesandwiched between the disk driving roller 21 and the disk guide portion33. Then, according to the rotation of the disk driving roller 21 andthe friction with the disk guide portion 33, the disk 7 rotates on acontact point with the disk guide portion 33 as a point of support androlls along the groove of the disk guide portion 33, whereby the disk 7is moved toward the centering position. Since the biasing force of thefirst disk guide arm 11 is set to be more than the biasing force of thesecond disk guide arm 12, the small-diameter 8 cm disk 7 inserted isheld in the biased state by the disk guide portion 33 of the second diskguide arm 12.

Since the distance between the disk driving roller 21 and the disk guideportion 33 is smaller than the diameter of the disk 7, the first andsecond disk guide arms 11 and 12 are pivotally moved by the disk 7 indirections apart from each other (the first disk guide arm 11 pivots inthe clockwise direction when seen in FIG. 3 and the second disk guidearm 12 pivots in the counter-clockwise direction when seen in FIG. 3).During this, the first and second disk guide arms 11 and 12 aresynchronized with each other to pivot by the arm synchronous member 98.Accordingly, the pair of the arms 11 and 12 can bring the disk 7 intothe apparatus body stably by holding the disk 7.

As the disk 7 is drawn a predetermined amount, the periphery of the disk7 comes in contact with the disk holding roller 56 as one of the rollersof the disk holding arm 44 and then presses the disk holding roller 56leftwards when seen in FIG. 3. Accordingly, the disk holding arm 44pivots in the counter-clockwise direction when seen in FIG. 3. As thedisk holding arm 44 pivots a predetermined amount, the first pressingportion 52 of the disk holding arm 44 also pivots in thecounter-clockwise direction, comes in contact with the pressed column 67of the trigger lever 64, and presses the pressed column 67. Accordingly,the trigger lever 64 pivots in the clockwise direction when seen in FIG.3 and the pressing column 68 presses the resetting slider 72 rightwardswhen seen in FIG. 3 so that the resetting slider 72 moves straightrightwards. By the rightward movement of the resetting slider 72, thefirst cam groove portion 77 b of the cam groove 77 a of the resettingslider 72 moves straight relative to the pin 84 of the slide cam member81. Therefore, at this point, the pin 84 is not pressed by the first camgroove portion 77 b so that the slide cam member 81 is still maintainedin the nonoperational position.

As the resetting slider 72 further moves rightwards when seen in FIG. 3,the rack gear 76 of the resetting slider 72 meshes with the resettingslider driving gear 80. At this point, the resetting slider driving gear80 is rotated by the rotation of the driving motor 37. Therefore, by therotational force of the driving motor 37, the resetting slider 72 startsto move rightwards. When the rack gear 76 starts to mesh with theresetting slider driving gear 80, the pin 84 is positioned at theboundary between the first cam groove portion 77 b and the second camgroove portion 77 c.

By the rightward movement of the resetting slider 72 by the rotationalforce of the driving motor 37, the pin 84 of the slide cam member 81 ispressed by the second cam groove portion 77 c in a directionperpendicular to the moving direction of the resetting slider 72, i.e.,in an upward direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction ofthe apparatus body 2 when seen in FIG. 3, whereby the slide cam member81 starts to move in the same direction.

As the slide cam member 81 further moves upwards, the rack gear 87 ofthe slide cam member 81 meshes with the slide cam member driving gear97. At this point, since the slide cam member driving gear 97 is rotatedby the rotation of the driving motor 37, the slide cam member 81 startsto move upwards by the rotation of the driving motor 37. In addition,the pin 84 is positioned in the third cam groove portion 77 d and therack gear 76 of the resetting slider 72 comes off the resetting sliderdriving gear 80 so that the resetting slider 72 is maintained in theposition.

Because of the upward movement of the slide cam member 81, the assistlever 105 is pressed upwards, when seen in FIG. 3, by the slide cammember 81 through the stopper 81 c so that the assist lever 105 startsto pivot in the clockwise direction. By the upward movement of the slidecam member 81, the stopper 81 b of the slide cam member 81 is positionednot to touch the pin 19 of the first disk guide arm 11. By the pivotalmovement of the second disk guide arm 12 in the counter-clockwisedirection, the second disk guide arm 12 moves to a position where thepin 32 is allowed to enter the cam face 90. By the pivotal movement ofthe second disk guide arm 12 for a predetermined amount in thecounter-clockwise direction, the switch actuator 31 presses the actuator108 a of the first switch 108 so as to turn on the first switch 108.

As the maximum diameter portion of the 8 cm disk 7 passes between thedisk driving roller 21 and the disk guide portion 33, the first andsecond disk guide arms 11 and 12 start to pivot in the reverse closingdirections, that is, the first disk guide arm 11 start to pivot in thecounter-clockwise direction and the second disk guide arm 12 starts topivot in the clockwise direction. Because of the pivotal movement of thesecond disk guide arm 12 in the clockwise direction and the upwardmovement of the slide cam member 81, the pin 32 enters in the cam face90.

During this, the periphery of the disk 7 are in contact with the drivingroller 21 and the disk guide portion 33 so that the first and seconddisk guide arm 11 and 12 hold the disk 7. When the first and second diskguide arms 11 and 12 start to pivot in the closing directions, themovement of second disk guide arm 12 in the counter-clockwise directionis not so large that the switch actuator 31 does not press the actuator109 a of the second switch 109 so that the second switch 109 is not turnon yet. As the second disk guide arm 12 pivots a predetermined amount inthe clockwise direction, the switch actuator 31 is spaced apart from theactuator 108 a of the first switch 108 so as to turn off the firstswitch 108.

As the disk 7 moves toward the centering position, the periphery of thedisk 7 comes in contact with the pin 106 of the assist lever 105 so thatthe assist lever 105 is moved by the disk 7 to pivot in the clockwisedirection.

As the 8 cm disk comes closer to the centering position, the slide cammember 81 is about to reach the movement limit position thereof. Then,the cam face 91 a of the slide cam member 81 comes in contact with thearm 114 of the closing control member 112 so that the closing controlmember 112 pivots in such a direction of closing the shutter 8 to coverthe disk loading/unloading slot 6. The pair of the projecting pins 118and 119 of the traverse unit supporting member 115 move from the lowerhorizontal slots 93 a and 94 a to the inclined slots 93 b and 94 b ofthe cam slots 93 and 94 and the traverse unit supporting member 115pivots about the pivot shaft 116 in the clockwise direction when seen inFIG. 17( a). Accordingly, the traverse unit 4 gradually moves upwardsand come very close to the upper position as shown in FIG. 17( b).

By further pivotal movement of the disk holding arm 44 in thecounter-clockwise direction, the holding assist arm 47 pivots relativeto the holding arm body 45, whereby the 8 cm disk 7 is placed to thecentering position with keeping the periphery of the disk 7 to be heldby the disk driving roller 21, the disk guide portion 33, and the diskholding rollers 56 and 57. As the 8 cm disk 7 is placed in the centeringposition as shown in FIG. 3, the pin 106 of the assist lever 105 comesin contact with the periphery of the disk 7 as shown in FIG. 18. Whenthe 8 cm disk 7 is set in the centering portion as shown in FIG. 3 inthis manner, the periphery of the disk 7 is held at four points by thedisk driving roller 21, the disk guide portion 33, and the two diskholding rollers 56 and 57 and is also supported by the pin 106.Therefore, the 8 cm disk is held stably in three dimensions, i.e. X-Y-Zdirections. The assist lever 105 is stably held in the centeringposition because the side 105 b of the assist lever 105 comes in contactwith the stopper 81 d of the slide cam member 81.

As the slide cam member 81 further moves, the pair of the projectingpins 118 and 119 of the traverse unit supporting member 115 moves to theupper horizontal slots 93 c and 94 c of the cam slots 93 and 94,respectively. As the traverse unit supporting member 115 further rotatesin the clockwise direction, the traverse unit 4 is set in the upperposition as shown in FIG. 17( b) where the 8 cm disk is clamped betweenthe clamper of the clamper supporting member 5 and the turn table 117.Since the actuator 110 a of the third switch 110 is pressed by theswitch actuator 81 e of the slide cam member 81 when the 8 cm disk 7 isclamped as mentioned above, the third switch 110 is turned on.Therefore, the controller stops the driving motor 37 so that the slidecam member 81 is stopped.

Because of the movement of the slide cam member 81 from the centering ofthe disk 7 to the clamping of the disk 7, the assist lever 105 is movedby the stopper 81 c to pivot in the clockwise direction so that the pin106 is spaced apart from the peripheral surface of the disk 7. Inaddition, the pin 32 of the second disk guide arm 12 is moved by thethird cam face 90 c of the slide cam member 81, whereby the second diskguide arm 12 slightly pivots in the counter-clockwise direction whenseen in FIG. 18 so that the disk guide portion 33 is spaced apart fromthe periphery of the disk 7. Because of the pivotal movement of thesecond guide arm 12 in the counter-clockwise direction, the first diskguide arm 11 is moved through the synchronous member 98 to pivot in theclockwise direction so that the disk driving roller 21 is spaced apartfrom the periphery of the disk 7. The pressing portion 82 of the slidecam member 81 comes in contact with the pin 55 a of the disk holding arm44 and then presses the pin 55 a, whereby the disk holding arm 44 isslightly moved to pivot in the counter-clockwise direction when seen inFIG. 18 so that the disk holding rollers 56 and 57 are both spaced apartfrom the periphery of the disk 7. In this manner, the 8 cm disk clampedwith the turn table 117 of the traverse unit 4 is allowed to freelyrotate, thereby allowing recording or reproduction of information ontoor from the 8 cm disk 7. In addition, the shutter 8 is closed by the camface 91 a to cover the disk loading/unloading slot 6 as shown in FIG. 2(b).

To unload the 8 cm disk 7 from the disk storage medium processingapparatus 1 after the recording or reproduction of information onto orfrom the disk 7, an eject button (not shown) mounted on the apparatusbody 2 is depressed. Accordingly, the controller drives the drivingmotor 37 to rotate in the reverse direction opposite to that in theaforementioned case. Then, the disk driving roller 21 is rotated in sucha direction as to eject the disk 7 and the slide cam member 81 movesstraight downwards when seen in FIG. 18, i.e., in the direction oppositeto that in the aforementioned case. By the third cam face 90 c of theslide cam member 81, the first and second disk guide arms 11 and 12 aremoved to pivot in the closing directions so that the disk driving roller21 and the disk guide portion 33 come in contact with the periphery ofthe disk 7 so as to hold the periphery of the disk 7. Since the pressingportion 82 of the slide cam member 81 is spaced apart from the pin 55 aof the disk holding arm 44, the disk holding arm 44 is moved to pivot inthe clockwise direction when seen in FIG. 18 by the biasing force of thespring acting on the disk holding arm 44 in the direction toward thenonoperational position and the pressing force of the pressing portion81 g of the slide cam member 81 which comes in contact with the pin 55 bof the disk holding arm 44 and presses the pin 55 b. Accordingly, thedisk holding rollers 56 and 57 both come in contact with the peripheryof the disk 7 and hold the disk 7. Since the stopper 81 c of the slidecam member 81 is spaced apart from the assist lever 105, the assistlever 105 is moved to pivot in the counter-clockwise direction when seenin FIG. 18 by the biasing force acting on the assist lever 105 so thatthe pin 106 comes in contact with the periphery of the disk 7 to supportthe disk 7. In this manner, the 8 cm disk 7 can be held stably.

Then, by the movement of the slide cam member 81, the pair of theprojecting pins 118 and 119 of the traverse unit supporting member 115move to the inclined slots 93 b and 94 b of the cam slots 93 and 94,respectively so that the traverse unit supporting member 115 is moved topivot about the pivot shaft 116 in the counter-clockwise direction whenseen in FIG. 17( b). Accordingly, the traverse unit 4 gradually movesdownwards so as to release the disk 7 from being clamped (i.e., unclampthe disk 7). Since the cam face 91 a moves away according to themovement of the slide cam member 81, the shutter 8 is moved by thebiasing force acting on the shutter 8 so as to pivot in the openingdirection to uncover the disk loading/unloading slot 6.

By further movement of the slide cam member 81, the first and seconddisk guide arms 11 and 12 are moved to pivot in the opening directionsand the disk holding arm 44 is further moved to pivot in the clockwisedirection, whereby the disk 7 is moved rightwards when seen in FIG. 18while the disk 7 is held by the disk driving roller 21, the disk guideportion 33, and the disk holding rollers 56 and 57. Since the diskdriving roller 21 is rotated in the reverse direction opposite to thatin the aforementioned case, the disk 7 is moved rightwards also by therotation of the disk driving roller 21.

As the slide cam member 81 further moves downwards when seen in FIG. 3,the pin 84 thereof is positioned within the second cam groove portion 77c and the pin 84 presses the resetting slider 72 upwards when seen inFIG. 11 to move the resetting slider 72. Therefore, the rack gear 76 ofthe resetting slider 72 meshes with the resetting slider driving gear80. At this point, the rack gear 87 of the slide cam member 81 comes offthe slide cam member driving gear 97. However, the reverse rotation ofthe driving motor 37 makes the resetting slider driving gear 80 torotate in the reverse direction opposite to that in the aforementionedcase. Therefore, via the rack gear 76 meshing with the resetting sliderdriving gear 80, the resetting slider 72 is moved leftwards when seen inFIG. 18 and the trigger lever 64 is moved to pivot in thecounter-clockwise direction.

As the second disk guide arm 12 is moved to pivot in the openingdirection (i.e., the counter-clockwise direction), the switch actuator31 turns on the first switch 108.

As the maximum diameter portion of the 8 cm disk 7 passes between thedisk driving roller 21 and the disk guide portion 33, the second diskguide arm 12 starts to pivot in the closing direction (i.e., theclockwise direction). As the second disk guide arm 12 pivots apredetermined amount in the closing direction, the switch actuator 31 isspaced apart from the first switch 108 so as to turn off the firstswitch 108. According to the ON/OFF of the switch 108, the controllerstops the driving motor 37. Therefore, the rightward movement of thedisk 7 (i.e., in the unloading direction) is stopped. At this point, aportion of the disk 7, i.e., the half or more of a central portion 7 a(shown in FIG. 18) of the disk 7 is out of the apparatus body throughthe disk loading/unloading slot 6. In this case, the non-recordableportion 7 b (shown in FIG. 18) at the periphery of the disk 7 is held bythe linear pinching groove of the linear guide holding portion 35 sothat the disk 7 is stably held. In this state of the disk 7, a usercatches the central portion 7 a which is a non-recordable portion of thedisk 7 with his or her fingers to pull out the disk 7 from the aperturebody 2. In this manner, the 8 cm disk 7 is taken out of the disk storagemedium processing apparatus 1.

After the 8 cm disk 7 is taken out, all of the components such as theshutter 8, the first and second disk guide arms 11 and 12, the diskholding arm 44, the trigger lever 64, the resetting slider 72, and theslide cam member 81 are set to their nonoperational positions as shownin FIG. 3 and FIG. 9 by the biasing force acting on themselves.

Hereinafter, the actions of loading and unloading a large-diameter 12 cmdisk into or from the apparatus body 2 will be described. The actionsare mostly the same as the actions of loading and unloading thesmall-diameter 8 cm disk. Therefore, the description will be made asregard to points different from the actions of loading and unloading the8 cm disk 7.

As the 12 cm disk 7 is inserted into the apparatus body 2 through thedisk loading/unloading slot 6 from the right hand side when seen in FIG.3, the driving motor 37 is driven to rotate, whereby the disk drivingroller 21 is rotated so as to draw the 12 cm disk 7 into the apparatusbody. Then because of the bias of the disk 7, the periphery of the disk7 is sandwiched between the slant face 6 b and the horizontal face 6 hof the disk holding portion 6 j, on the second disk guide arm 12 side,of the disk loading/unloading slot 6. Since the periphery of the disk 7is held in this manner, the attitude of the disk 7 during insertion canbe maintained to extend along the insertion direction. Therefore, thedisk 7 can be inserted into the apparatus body 2 through the diskloading/unloading slot 6 with maintaining stable attitude. The first andsecond disk guide arms 11 and 12 pivot in the opening directions. Sincethe diameter of the 12 cm disk 7 is larger than the diameter of the 8 cmdisk, the first and second disk guide arms 11 and 12 pivot in theopening directions largely as compared to the case of the 8 cm disk 7.Then, the cam face 16 a of the cam 16 of the first disk guide arm 11comes in contact with the cam contact portion 69 of the trigger lever 64so as to press the trigger lever 64 upwards when seen in FIG. 9 againstthe spring force of the coil spring 71. Accordingly, the pressed column67 also moves upwards so that the pressed column 67 does not come incontact with the first pressing portion 52 of the disk holding arm 44and is set to such a position that the pressed column 67 is allowed tocome in contact with the second pressing portion 53. Therefore, in caseof the 12 cm disk 7, the disk holding arm 44 pivots largely as comparedto the case of the 8 cm disk 7 so that the second pressing portion 53comes in contact with the pressed column 67 so as to start the pivotalmovement of the trigger lever 64. That is, in case of the 12 cm disk 7,trigger is set such that the slide cam member starts to operate (move)after the disk holding arm 44 pivots largely. Since the amount of thepivotal movement of the disk holding arm 44 for stating the operation ofthe slide cam member 81 is set to be different as mentioned above, thecontrol for centering the 12 cm disk 7 after the start of operation ofthe slide cam member 81 can be the same as the case of the 8 cm disk 7.

Since the second disk guide arm 12 pivots in the opening directionlargely, the switch actuator 31 of the second disk guide arm 12 turns onthe first switch 108 and also turns on the second switch 109. Thecontrol for the pivotal movement of the first and second disk guide arms11 and 12 is different from that of the case of the 8 cm disk 7. Thatis, the pin 32 of the second disk guide arm 12 is controlled by the twocam faces 88 a and 88 b, thereby controlling the pivotal movement of thefirst and second disk guide arms 11 and 12.

In FIG. 3, the periphery of the 12 cm disk 7 inserted into the diskstorage medium processing apparatus 1 comes in contact with the diskholding roller 56 of the disk holding arm 44 and moves the disk holdingarm 44 to pivot in the counter-clockwise direction similarly to the caseof the 8 cm disk 7. As the amount of the pivotal movement of the diskholding arm 44 increases, the disk holding roller 57 also comes incontact with the periphery of the 12 cm disk 7, whereby the periphery ofthe 12 cm disk 7 is held by the disk driving roller 21, the disk guideportion 33, and the disk holding rollers 56 and 57 so as to hold the 12cm disk 7 similarly to the case of the 8 cm disk 7. According to thefurther movement of the disk holding arm 44 in the counter-clockwisedirection, the holding assist arm 47 pivots relative to the holding armbody 45, whereby the 12 cm disk 7 is set to the centering position withmaintaining the periphery of the disk 7 to be held by the disk drivingroller 21, the disk guide portion 33, and the disk holding rollers 56and 57 as shown in FIG. 19.

Because of the movement of the slide cam member 81 from the centering ofthe 12 cm disk 7 to the clamping of the 12 cm disk 7 similarly to theaforementioned case of the 8 cm disk, the disk holding arm 44 furtherpivots in the counter-clockwise direction. Accordingly, the pressedportion 61 a of the switching lever 61 comes in contact with the sidewall of the apparatus body 2 as shown in FIG. 20 so that the switchinglever 61 is moved to pivot in the counter-clockwise direction.Therefore, the holding assist arm 47 pivots relative to the holding armbody 45 so that the relation between the holding assist arm 47 and theholding arm body 45 becomes to the state shown by chain double-dashedlines in FIG. 7( b). Accordingly, the pivotal movement of the diskholding arm 44 takes small space even when the disk holding arm 44pivots largely. In the state that the 12 cm disk 7 is clamped by theturn table 117 of the traverse unit 4, the disk driving roller 21, thedisk guide portion 33, the disk holding roller 56 and 57, and the pin106 are spaced apart from the disk 7 so that the 12 cm disk is freelyrotatable. Similarly to the aforementioned case of inserting the disk 7,when the 12 cm disk is taken out, the periphery of the disk 7 issandwiched and held between the slant face 6 b and the horizontal face 6h of the disk holding portion 6 j, near the second disk guide arm 12, ofthe disk loading/unloading slot 6 because of the difference in biasingforce of the first and second disk guide arms 11 and 12. Since the disk7 is held in this manner, the attitude of the disk 7 can be maintainedto extend along the ejection direction. Therefore, the disk 7 which ispartially out of the apparatus body through the disk loading/unloadingslot 6 can be held in further stable attitude. The assist lever 105 isnot necessarily provided and can be omitted. In this case, the diskdriving roller 21, and the disk guide portion 33, and the two diskholding rollers 56 and 57 are adapted to hold the 8 cm disk 7 at fourpoints stably.

In the disk storage medium processing apparatus 1 of this embodimenthaving the aforementioned structure, the disk 7 is conveyed between thedisk loading/unloading slot 6 and the turn table 117 of the traverseunit 4 while holding the periphery of the disk 7 by the pair of thefirst and second disk guide arms 11 and 12. Therefore, the disk storagemedium processing apparatus 1 can protect the recording surface of thedisk 7 from damage or foreign matters such as dust, allows thesimplification of the structure for conveying the disk 7, and allowsreduction in size of the apparatus.

Since the first disk guide arm 11 has the disk driving roller 21 forconveying the disk 7 and the gear train 22 for transmitting power torotate the disk driving roller 21 is placed on the first disk guide arm11, the power of the driving motor 37 can be securely transmitted to thedisk driving roller 21 even when the first disk guide arm 11 pivots. Inaddition, the efficient use of the first disk guide arm 11 eliminatesthe need for a space for mounting the gear train 22 onto the apparatusbody 2. This allows reduction in size of the apparatus.

The first disk guide arm 11 has the disk driving roller 21 for holdingthe periphery of the disk 7 and the second disk guide arm 12 has thedisk guide portion 33, made of an elastic friction material, for holdingthe periphery of the disk 7, thereby eliminating the need for a rolleron the second disk guide arm 12. This allows the simplification of thedisk holding structure of the second disk guide arm 12. Since the diskguide portion 33 has the linear holding portions 35 a and 35 b, the disk7 can be stably held when unloading the disk 7, thereby facilitating theunloading of the disk 7.

Since the pivotal movement of the first and second disk guide arms 11and 12 are synchronized by the arm synchronous member 98, conveyingcontrol of the disk 7 can be securely and easily conducted such that thedisk 7 can be conveyed from the disk loading/unloading slot 6 to thecentering position of the traverse unit 4 and can be conveyed from thecentering position of the traverse unit 4 to the disk loading/unloadingslot 6 without leaning the disk 7 within the apparatus body 2.

Further, the first disk guide arm 11 has the cam 16 for discriminatingthe diameter of the disk 7 and controlling the conveyance of the disk 7according to the diameter of the disk 7, thereby eliminating the needfor another means for discriminating the diameter of the disk 7.Therefore, this can reduce the number of parts and eliminate the needfor a space of mounting the means on the apparatus body, therebyallowing reduction in size of the apparatus.

Since the disk holding arm 44 has a foldable structure composed of theholding arm body 45 and the holding assist arm 47, the disk holding arm44 achieves reliable holding of either of the large-diameter 12 cm diskand the small-diameter 8 cm disk and reduces its radius of gyration,thereby further allowing reduction in size of the apparatus. Since thedisk holding arm 44 can hold the small-diameter 8 cm disk at least attwo points by the holding assist arm 47, even the small-diameter diskcan be reliably held. In addition, the disk holding arm 44 enables morereliable and easier centering of either of the large-diameter 12 cm diskand the small-diameter 8 cm disk.

Respective trigger for starting the conveyance of the large-diameter 12cm disk and the small-diameter 8 cm disk is set according to the amountof pivotal movement of the disk holding arm 44, thereby easily andflexibly responding the disk whether the disk has the small diameter orthe large diameter and thus constantly and easily conducting the controlfor conveyance of the disk 7 of either diameter.

A plurality of controls such as the control for conveyance of the disk7, the control for centering of the disk 7, control for clamping orunclamping the disk 7 relative to the turn table 117, the control foropening or closing the shutter 8, and the ON/OFF control for the thirdswitch 110 are conducted by only one control member, i.e., the slide cammember 81, regardless of the diameter of the disk 7, thereby eliminatingthe need for respective control members for conducting these controlsand thus reducing the number of parts. In addition, it facilitates thesecontrols and thus improves the controllability. Moreover, it caneliminate the need for spaces for mounting the respective controlmembers on the apparatus body 2, thereby allowing reduction in size ofthe apparatus.

Since the traverse unit 4 is supported by the traverse unit supportingmember 115 and the disk 7 can be clamped with the traverse unit 4 justby moving the traverse unit supporting member 115 to pivot, no designchange is required even if a conventional traverse unit is used as thetraverse unit 4 for the disk storage medium processing apparatus 1 ofthis embodiment. Therefore, an existing traverse unit can be used as thetraverse unit 4 without design change, thereby easily producing the diskstorage medium processing apparatus 1 at low cost.

Since the disk 7 is pinched and held by at least the disk driving roller21, the disk guide portion 33, and the disk holding roller 56, the diskstorage medium processing apparatus 1 is allowed to be installed freelyin any of a horizontal attitude, a vertical attitude, and an inclinedattitude.

FIG. 21 is an illustration showing another embodiment of the diskstorage medium processing apparatus according to the present invention.As shown in FIG. 21, in a disk storage medium processing apparatus 1 ofthis embodiment, a pair of pinching surfaces 21 c, 21 d of a diskpinching portion 21 b of a disk driving roller 21 are composed ofconvexities 21 c ₁, 21 d ₁ and concavities 21 c ₂, 21 d ₂ which arealternately arranged in the circumferential direction to form unevenconical surfaces, respectively. In this embodiment, each pair of theconvexities 21 c ₁ and 21 d ₁ are continued in the axial directionthrough a convexity 21 e ₁ of the bottom surface 21 e as the boundarybetween the pinching surfaces 21 c and 21 d, while each pair of theconcavities 21 c ₂ and 21 d ₂ are continued in the axial directionthrough a concavity 21 e ₂ of the bottom surface 21 e as the boundarybetween the pinching surfaces 21 c and 21 d similarly. In each convexity21 e ₁ of the bottom surface 21 e, there is formed a circumferentialgroove 21 e ₃ which is flush with the concavity 21 e ₂. That is, thedisk driving roller 21 is provided with a pinching groove forsandwiching the periphery of the disk 7 from above and below by the pairof the pinching surfaces 21 c and 21 d. In this regard, the periphery ofthe disk 7 is held by the convexities 21 c ₁ and 21 d ₁ of the pinchingsurfaces 21 c and 21 d from above and below, but not held by theconcavities 21 c ₂ and 21 d ₂. Therefore, the pair of the pinchingsurfaces 21 c, 21 d sandwich the periphery of the disk 7 intermittently.

Because of the convexities 21 c ₁, 21 d ₁ and the concavities 21 c ₂, 21d ₂, the disk 7 is held by the pairs of convexities 21 c ₁ and 21 d ₁intermittently and the disk 7 is held by edges of the convexities 21 c ₁and 21 d ₁ intermittently, thereby transmitting larger driving forcefrom the disk driving roller 21 to the disk 7 and thus further ensuringthe loading and the unloading of the disk 7.

It should be understood that the circular pinching groove of the firstguide holding portion 34 and the linear pinching groove of the linearguide holding portion 35 shown in FIG. 5 may be provided withconvexities and concavities similar to the convexities 21 c ₁, 21 d ₁and the concavities 21 c ₂, 21 d ₂ of the disk driving roller 21 asmentioned above.

In the aforementioned embodiment, the disk guide portion 33 is disposedon the other end side of the second disk guide arm 12. In thisembodiment, instead of the disk guide portion 33, a disk driven roller120 is disposed which is rotatable relative to the second disk guide arm12 as shown in FIG. 22. The disk driven roller 120 has completely thesame configuration as that of the disk driving roller 21. The diskdriven roller 120 has a disk guide portion 120 a, a disk pinchingportion 120 b, a pair of pinching surfaces 120 c and 120 d, convexities120 c ₁ and 120 d ₁, concavities 120 c ₂ and 120 d ₂, a bottom surface120 e, convexities 120 e ₁, concavities 120 e ₂, and grooves 120 e ₃which are corresponding to the disk guide portion 21 a, the diskpinching portion 21 b, a pair of the pinching surfaces 21 c and 21 dwhich can come in contact with the upper and lower edges of theperiphery of the disk 7, the convexities 21 c ₁ and 21 d ₁, theconcavities 21 c ₂ and 21 d ₂, the bottom surface 21 e, the convexities21 e ₁, the concavities 21 e ₂, and the grooves 21 e ₃ of the diskdriving roller 21. That is, the disk driven roller 120 is provided witha pinching groove for sandwiching the periphery of the disk 7 from aboveand below by the pair of the pinching surfaces 120 c and 120 d. In thisregard, the periphery of the disk 7 is held by the convexities 120 c ₁and 120 d ₁ of the pair of pinching surfaces 120 c and 120 d from aboveand below, but not held by the concavities 120 c ₂ and 120 d ₂.Therefore, the pair of the pinching surfaces 120 c, 120 d sandwich theperiphery of the disk 7 intermittently.

Further, a driven gear 121 is disposed coaxially with the driven roller120 such that the driven gear 121 can rotate together with the drivenroller 120. On the other hand, in the apparatus body 2, there isprovided a rack gear 122 having circular arc shape internal teeth. Therack gear 122 is formed into an arc of a circle about the rotary shaft28 of the second disk guide arm 12. The driven gear 121 always mesheswith the rack gear 122. Therefore, when the second disk guide arm 12 ismoved to pivot in the clockwise direction when seen in FIG. 23, thedriven gear 121 and the disk driven roller 120 both rotate in thecounter-clockwise direction. When the second disk guide arm 12 is movedto pivot in the counter-clockwise direction when seen in FIG. 23, thedriven gear 121 and the disk driven roller 120 both rotate in theclockwise direction.

The other structure of the disk storage medium processing apparatus 1 ofthis embodiment is the same as that of the disk storage mediumprocessing apparatus 1 of the aforementioned embodiment.

In the disk storage medium processing apparatus 1 of this embodimenthaving the aforementioned structure, the disk driving roller 21 forholding the periphery of the disk 7 is rotatably disposed on the firstdisk guide arm 11 and the disk driven roller 120 having completely thesame configuration as that of the disk driving roller 21 is rotatablydisposed on the second disk guide arm 12, whereby the loading and theunloading of the disk 7 can be smoothly and stably conducted such thatthe center of the disk 7 moves along substantially the midpoint betweenthe disk driving roller 21 and the disk driven roller 120 with littlerotation of the disk 7 in the initial stage of the loading. Therefore,the user feels comfortable when inserting the disk through the diskloading/unloading slot 6. Since completely the same rollers are used inthe first and second disk guide arm 11 and 12 so as to eliminate theneed to use rollers of different configurations as the disk drivingroller 21 and the disk driven roller 120, thereby reducing the costbecause of commonization of parts.

When the user inserts the disk 7 through the disk loading/unloading slot6 and the upper and lower edges of the periphery of the disk 7 comes incontact with the disk driving roller 21, large driving force isgenerated between the disk driving roller 21 and the disk 7 because thedisk driving roller 21 has the convexities and concavities 21 c ₁, 21 d₁; 21 c ₂, 21 d ₂. Therefore, the first and second disk guide arms 11and 12 are reliably moved to pivot in the opening directions.

The other works and effects of the disk storage medium processingapparatus 1 of this embodiment are the same as the works and effects ofthe disk storage medium processing apparatus 1 of the aforementionedembodiment.

In the aforementioned embodiment shown in FIG. 21 and FIG. 22, the pairof the pinching surfaces 21 c, 21 d, 120 c, 120 d and the bottomsurfaces 21 e, 120 e are provided with the convexities 21 c ₁, 21 d ₁;120 c ₁, 120 d ₁; 21 e ₁, 120 e ₁, the concavities 21 c ₂, 21 d ₂; 120 c₂, 120 d ₂; 21 e ₂, 120 e ₂, and the grooves 21 e ₃, 120 e ₃,respectively so that the pinching surfaces 21 c, 21 d; 120 c, 120 d andthe bottom surfaces 21 e, 120 e are formed in uneven surfaces. However,these are not necessarily formed. For example, the disk guide portion 21a, the disk pinching portion 21 b, the pair of the pinching surfaces 21c, 21 d, and the bottom surface 21 e of the disk driving roller 21 maybe formed in a continuous surface without convexities and concavities asshown in FIG. 4( a). The same is true of the disk driven roller 120.

The disk driving roller 21 and the disk driven roller 120 rotate in thestate that the periphery of the disk 7 is sandwiched from above andbelow by the pair of the pinching surfaces 21 c, 21 d; 120 c, 120 d atthe pinching grooves of the disk pinching portions 21 b, 120 b, therebydrawing or ejecting the disk 7.

Though the pair of the pinching surfaces 21 c, 21 d and the bottomsurface 21 e of the disk driving roller 21 are formed in a continuoussurface without convexities and concavities in the aforementionedembodiment shown in FIG. 4( a), convexities 21 c ₁, 21 d ₁, 21 e ₁,concavities 21 c ₂, 21 d ₂, 21 e ₂, and grooves 21 e ₃ similar to thosein the embodiment shown in FIG. 21 may be formed in the pinchingsurfaces 21 c, 21 d and the bottom surface 21 e so that the pinchingsurfaces 21 c, 21 d and the bottom surface 21 e may be formed in anuneven surface.

FIG. 24 is a perspective view showing a disk driving roller of anotherembodiment of the disk storage medium processing apparatus according tothe present invention.

In the aforementioned embodiment, the circumferential phases of theconvexities 21 c ₁, 21 d ₁ of the pinching surfaces 21 c, 21 d of thedisk driving roller 21 coincide with each other (i.e., there is no phasedifference) and the circumferential phases of the concavities 21 c ₂, 21d ₂ of the pinching surfaces 21 c, 21 d coincide with each other (i.e.,there is no phase difference) so that the convexities 21 e ₁ of thebottom surface 21 e connecting the concavities 21 c ₁ and 21 d ₁ to eachother and the concavities 21 e ₂ of the bottom surface 21 e connectingthe concavities 21 c ₂ and 21 d ₂ are formed parallel to a rotary shaft21 f of the disk driving roller 21. However, in the disk driving roller21 in the disk storage medium processing apparatus 1 of this embodimentas shown in FIG. 24, the circumferential phases of convexities 21 c ₁,21 d ₁ of the pinching surfaces 21 c, 21 d are different from each other(i.e., there is phase difference) and the circumferential phases ofconcavities 21 c ₂, 21 d ₂ of the pinching surfaces 21 c, 21 d aredifferent from each other (i.e., there is phase difference). That is,the circumferential phases of the convexities 21 d ₁ and the concavities21 d ₂ of the pinching surface 21 d are advanced a predetermined amountin the clockwise direction (i.e., in a right-to-left direction when seenin FIG. 24) from the circumferential phases of the convexities 21 c ₁and the concavities 21 c ₂ of the pinching surface 21 c.

The convexities 21 e ₁ of the bottom surface 21 e connecting theconvexities 21 c ₁, 21 d ₁ to each other and the concavities 21 e ₂ ofthe bottom surface 21 e are each formed to extend diagonally notparallel to the rotary shaft 21 f of the disk driving roller 21.

The other structure of the disk storage medium processing apparatus 1 ofthis embodiment is the same as that of the aforementioned embodiment.

In the disk storage medium processing apparatus 1 of this embodimenthaving the aforementioned structure, the convexities 21 c ₁, 21 d ₁ ofthe disk pinching portion 21 b are elastically deformed when theperiphery of the disk 7 is sandwiched from above and below by theconvexities 21 c ₁, 21 d ₁ of the pinching surfaces 21 c, 21 d becausethe disk pinching portion 21 b is made of elastic material such asrubber. Because of the elastic deformation of the convexities 21 c ₁, 21d ₁, the peripheral surface of the disk 7 comes in contact with theconvexities 21 e ₁ of the bottom surface 21 e. Since the convexities 21e ₁ and the concavities 21 e ₂ of the bottom surface 21 e extenddiagonally relative to the rotary shaft 21 f, the disk 7 is pressedtoward the pinching surface 21 c by boundary edges 21 e ₄ between theconvexities 21 e ₁ and the concavities 21 e ₂ when the disk drivingroller 21 rotates in the clockwise direction, and the disk 7 is pressedtoward the pinching surface 21 d by boundary edges 21 e ₅ between theconvexities 21 e ₁ and the concavities 21 e ₂ when the disk drivingroller 21 rotates in the counter-clockwise direction. As mentionedabove, when the disk driving roller 21 rotates, the disk is pressedtoward either of the pinching surfaces 21 c, 21 d by either of theboundary edges 21 e ₄, 21 e ₅ between the convexities 21 e ₁ and theconcavities 21 e ₂ of the bottom surface 21 e according to therotational direction of the disk driving roller 21. Therefore, thedriving force from the disk driving roller 21 to the disk 7 isincreased, thereby further reliably conducting the conveyance of thedisk 7.

Though the circumferential phases of the convexities 21 d ₁ and theconcavities 21 d ₂ are advanced a predetermined amount in the clockwisedirection from the circumferential phases of the convexities 21 c ₁ andthe concavities 21 c ₂ in the embodiment shown in FIG. 24, thecircumferential phases of the convexities 21 c ₁ and the concavities 21c ₂ may be advanced a predetermined amount in the clockwise directionfrom the circumferential phases of the convexities 21 d ₁ and theconcavities 21 d ₂.

In the disk driven roller 33, convexities 33 c ₁, 33 d ₁, 33 e ₁ and theconcavities 33 c ₂, 33 d ₂, 33 e ₂ may be formed similarly to theconvexities 21 c ₁, 21 d ₁, 21 e ₁ and the concavities 21 c ₂, 21 d ₂,21 e ₂. In this case, the phase difference between the convexities 33 c₁ and 33 d ₁ and the phase difference between the concavities 33 c ₂ and33 c ₂ are set in such a manner that when the disk 7 is pressed to oneof the pinching surfaces 21 c, 21 d according to the rotation of thedisk driving roller 21, the disk 7 is pressed to one of the pinchingsurfaces 33 c, 33 d which is on the same side of the pinching surface ofthe disk driving roller 21.

1. A disk storage medium processing apparatus comprising: at least anapparatus body having a disk loading/unloading slot; a traverse unitwhich is disposed in said apparatus body to conduct at least one ofrecording, deletion, and reproduction of information onto or from adisk; a clamper supporting means for supporting a clamper which clampssaid disk to said traverse unit; a disk conveying means which conveyssaid disk into said apparatus body when a part of said disk is insertedthrough said disk loading/unloading slot and which ejects a part of saiddisk through said disk loading/unloading slot from a state that saiddisk is housed in said apparatus body, said disk conveying meanscomprising a pair of first and second disk conveying arms which arepivotably attached to the apparatus body and holding a periphery of saiddisk to convey said disk; and a driving means for generating rotationalforce, wherein said first disk conveying arm has a disk driving rollerwhich can be rotated by the rotational force of said driving means andsaid second disk conveying arm has a disk driven roller which isrotatably disposed, said disk driven roller being rotatable through agear by rotation of the second disc conveying arm, and said disk drivingroller and said disk driven roller hold the periphery of a portion ofsaid disk inserted through said disk loading/unloading slot to conveysaid disk to the clamper supporting means, and hold the periphery ofsaid disk and rotate to convey said disk to said clamper supportingmeans to eject at least a portion of said disk through said diskloading/unloading slot.
 2. A disk storage medium processing apparatus asclaimed in claim 1, wherein said first disk conveying arm is alwaysbiased in such a direction that said disk driving roller comes closer tosaid disk driven roller of said second disk conveying arm, and saidsecond disk conveying arm is always biased in such a direction that saiddisk driven roller comes closer to said disk driving roller, and thebiasing force biasing said first disk conveying arm is set to be morethan the biasing force biasing said second disk conveying arm.
 3. A diskstorage medium processing apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein atleast pinching surfaces of a disk pinching portion of said disk drivingroller hold the periphery of said disk intermittently.
 4. A diskrecording medium processing apparatus as claimed in claim 3, wherein thedisk pinching portion of said disk driving roller is an elastic memberand comprises a pair of pinching surfaces composing said pinchingsurfaces and a bottom surface between the pair of said pinchingsurfaces, each of said pinching surfaces is composed of convexities andconcavities which are alternately arranged in a circumferentialdirection to form an uneven curved conical surface, and said bottomsurface is composed of convexities and concavities which are alternatelyarranged in the circumferential direction to form an uneven surfaceparallel to a rotary shaft of said disk driving roller, and each pair ofcorresponding convexities of said pinching surfaces is connected via aconvexity of said bottom surface and each pair of correspondingconcavities of said pinching surfaces is connected via a concavity ofsaid bottom surface.
 5. A disk storage medium processing apparatus asclaimed in claim 4, wherein pairs of corresponding convexities of saidpinching surfaces have phase difference in the circumferential directionof the pinching surfaces, and the convexities of said bottom surfaceconnecting the corresponding convexities are formed to extend diagonallyrelative to the rotary shaft of said disk driving roller.
 6. A diskstorage medium processing apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein agear train for transmitting the rotational force of said driving meansto said disk driving roller is disposed on said first disk conveyingarm.
 7. A disk storage medium processing apparatus as claimed in claim1, further comprising an arm synchronous means for synchronizing apivotal movement of said first disk conveying arm and a pivotal movementof said second disk conveying arm with each other.
 8. A disk storagemedium processing apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said diskloading/unloading slot is provided with a disk holding portion forholding said disk.